One of the lesser known ship types of the age of sail, Hemmema were shallow draught frigates designed so that they could be rowed/manoeuvred with sweeps. One of four types of ‘archipelago frigate’ designed by the prolific naval architect Henrik Af Chapman, they were designed in an attempt to bring the firepower, storage and crew protection benefits of a frigate to warfare in the shallow archipelagos of Sweden and Finland, and to outcompete the galleys and Shebecks (modified Xebecs) that were prominent in those areas.

Of the four types of archipelago frigate Chapman designed, the Hemmema most resembled ocean going frigates, and were arguably the best. They sailed well in comparison to galleys and placing the oars on the gun deck got the rowers closer to the water, making the Hemmema slightly more tolerable to row than the sister Turumas. However, like all of the archipelago frigates, they performed badly when rowed and the oars were really only useful for manoeuvring.

The initial design for the Oden (24) had her at 33 m (108.2 ft) long, 8.2 m (26.8 ft) wide with a draft of 2.8 m - 1.5m shallower than a typical ocean going 6th rate. As you probably all know, the size of frigates in general greatly increased between 1770 and 1800, and the archipelago frigates were not immune to this size creep. Hemmemas built for the Russo-Swedish war of 1788-1790 had grown to 146 by 36ft. Diagonal bracing and a 30cm increase in draught allowed these ‘super Archipelago frigates’ to carry an armament of 22 36 pounder guns and 2 12 pounders, making them considerably better armed than any other sixth rate frigates as well as the frigates of the Swedish sea going Navy.

Hemmemas participated in the second battle of Svenskund but it was the smaller gun boats and yawls that won that battle. It's fair to say that the archipelago frigates never really found their niche (if it ever existed in the first place) with no Swedish officer really able to bring them into battle in a decisive way. Most of them ended up captured by the Russians, but they still represent an interesting study in innovative ship design to meet the specific needs of a particular country.

Born in Dundee, Duncan was a Scotsman through and through, living most of his life between Angus and Edinburgh. He first went to sea at 15, on the ship of his maternal uncle, before earning a new patron in the Hon. Augustus Keppel. Under Keppel he moved through a series of postings in the Mediterranean, West Indies and North America, before being posted Captain of the Valiant (74) in 1761. He returned to the channel fleet under Keppel for the war of American Independence, fighting at the Moonlight battle and the relief of Gibraltar, making Admiral in 1787.

Duncan was a fervent whig and was accused during his own lifetime of benefitting greatly from his political allegiance, as well as through his marriage to the influential Dundas family. His refusal to serve in the Caribbean greatly hindered his career, and kept him on the sidelines during the French revolutionary war untill 1795, where he took over the North Sea fleet. 

Good looking with a forceful personality, Duncan combined a reverence for God with an immense fortitude to resist hardship. His enormous size also made him appear every bit the hero to onlookers, and he was never afraid to throw his weight around. In 1762, he led the siege of the castle of Moro armed only with a stick and in 1792, at 61, he took on an Edinburgh mob protesting outside the house of his mother-in-law wielding a crutch - but by far the best example of what could be termed the ‘Duncan touch’ was during the run up to the Nore mutiny of 1797. After a heated debate with the crew of his flagship, Venerable (74) - in which he threatened to run one man through with his sword - he transferred to the Adamant (50), and broke up the discontent there by grabbing one of the ring leaders and dangling him over the side of the ship with one arm whilst daring the others to mutiny.

In the end, of all the ships in the Nore fleet, only the Adamant and Venerable didn’t join the mutiny.

His time as commander of the Nore station was spent trying to catch the Dutch at sea and bringing them to battle. After several failed attempts, he succeeded in doing this on Oct 11, 1797, off Camperduin. With limited time to bring up a general engagement before the Dutch ships escaped to shallow water, Duncan never bothered forming a line of battle, attacking in cruising order and pulling off the ‘Lord Howe maneuver’ - of attacking from windward and fighting to leeward to prevent your enemy’s escape. His fleet broke the Dutch line in two places, in striking similarity to Trafalgar. Duncan immediately became a national hero for winning what till that point, was the greatest ever British naval victory and used that status to secure full pardons for his mutinous fleet. The rise of Nelson at the Nile less than 1 year later, has somewhat lessened his status in modern memory, but Duncan remains to this day one of the greatest naval commanders in history and the most successful ever to hail from Scotland.

If I had a nickel for everything an HMS Royal James was lost to Dutch fireships, Id have 2 nickels, which is a little weird. Admiral Montagu died with his ship.

Admiral De Grasse sailed from the West Indies with additional French expeditionary forces, secured victory at the Chesapeake, denying Cornwallis evacuation by sea.

Maj. Gen. Lafayette, Washington’s son in arms who pinned Cornwallis and nearly one quarter of Britain’s North American forces in Yorktown.

Lt. Gen. Rochambeau, Commander-in-chief of the Expédition Particulière. Upon learning of Admiral de Grasse’s imminent arrival, Rochambeau urged Washington to abandon his New York campaign in favor of Virginia; while during their march, they learned of Cornwallis’s position.

OTD the Siege of Yorktown, Virginia began, lasting from 28 September to 19 October 1781. While the American Revolutionary War formally ended in 1783, the Siege of Yorktown marked the beginning of the end to conflict. After then Lt. General Cornwallis, signed the Articles of Capitulation, the collapse of British political support accelerated and with it any notion of major offensive campaign against the Americans.

Today, America enjoys the idea of revolutionary fervor defeating one of the world's greatest empires. The Revolutionary mythos often overlooks the true impact of the French soldiers and seamen that fought for American independence. That is to say, without these three, and the thousands of other Frenchmen, the Stars and Stripes would likely not fly so proudly as it does today.

A quick thanks to our French members, from an American.

After three bloody Anglo-Dutch Wars, the two old rivals suddenly found themselves allies from 1689 onwards. Under Stadtholder-King William III, their fleets fought together against France, which under Louis XIV had developed into a formidable naval power. In the early years of the war, the French fleet was the largest in Europe, meaning that only together did the English and Dutch possess a numerical advantage. Initially, the French were successful. In 1690, they inflicted a severe defeat on the combined fleet at Beachy Head. Two years later, however, the tide turned. At Barfleur and La Hogue, the French fleet was defeated and a considerable number of its largest warships were lost. The French attempt to defeat the Allied fleet outright and enable an invasion of England had thereby failed.

Although the superiority of the combined Anglo-Dutch fleet had now been demonstrated, France was far from defeated at sea. The French increasingly turned to the guerre de course: attacking English and Dutch merchant shipping. In 1693, Admiral Tourville once again assembled a large fleet. His orders were clear: he was to avoid battle with the full Allied fleet, but if the enormous merchant convoy sailing for the Mediterranean was protected only by a smaller squadron, he was to strike.

That was exactly what happened. Around 400 merchantmen set sail under the protection of the Anglo-Dutch main fleet, which consisted of 76 large warships. The Allies, however, mistakenly believed that Tourville was still at Brest. After the main fleet turned back, the convoy continued under Vice-Admiral George Rooke and the Dutch Rear-Admiral Philips van der Goes, who had only sixteen warships at their disposal. Tourville, meanwhile, had sailed south with around seventy warships and was waiting for them off the Portuguese coast.

On 27 June, the convoy sailed into the trap off Lagos. As more and more French sails appeared on the horizon, Rooke and Van der Goes realised that fighting the French main fleet was hopeless. The merchantmen were ordered to scatter and make for safe harbours, while the warships withdrew. At the rear were two Dutch 64-gun ships: the Zeeland, commanded by Captain Philips Schrijver, and the Wapen van Medemblik, commanded by Captain Jan van der Poel.

When the French vanguard caught up with them, Schrijver and Van der Poel decided to sacrifice their ships. They turned towards the coast, drawing the pursuing French away from the fleeing convoy. The Zeeland initially managed to beat off the 66-gun Ardent, after which Admiral Gabaret joined the fight aboard the 92-gun Victorieux. Meanwhile, the Wapen van Medemblik took on the 100-gun Dauphin Royal. Eventually, around ten French warships descended upon the two Dutch ships.

After about an hour and a half, both heavily battered ships were forced to surrender, but their plan had worked. They had held up the French vanguard and given the remaining warships and much of the convoy time to escape. Rooke later called their manoeuvre “one of the best judged things I ever saw in action.” The French were equally impressed. When Schrijver was brought before Tourville as a prisoner, the French admiral embraced him and asked “whether he was a devil or a man,” saying that he had never seen anyone fight like that before.

Lagos nevertheless remained a severe Allied defeat. Almost 100 valuable merchantmen were captured or destroyed, causing an economic disaster. Three Dutch warships were also lost. The Anglo-Dutch main fleet subsequently attempted to intercept Tourville. The Dutch admiral Philips van Almonde wanted to sail south immediately, but the English ships were not ready and first had to be resupplied. By the time the Allied fleet finally put to sea again, the opportunity had passed. Tourville avoided a major fleet action and sailed into the Mediterranean.

The French decision to focus on commerce warfare clearly paid off that year. In 1693, the French inflicted more damage on English and Dutch merchant shipping than they had in the earlier years when their fleet had openly contested command of the sea. Yet the strategy also had a serious drawback. While French warships and privateers preyed on enemy commerce, the Anglo-Dutch fleets controlled the principal sea routes, bringing French overseas trade almost to a standstill. This became particularly painful when France suffered severe food shortages later that year: just when grain imports by sea were desperately needed, its own merchant shipping had largely been paralysed.

Thanks u/GrandAdmiralRaeder for carrying out the poll as to which 74 we would be choosing, and thanks everyone who voted. Implacable won decisively.

A French built, Téméraire-class, 74, Duguay-Trouin was launched in 1800 and saw one action in earnest before Trafalgar, where she was part of Dumanoir's van. Dumanoir infamously avoided battle that day and escaped, but Duguay-Trouin was captured soon after at the battle of Cape Ortegal.

She was renamed Implacable and brought into British service, where she was involved in war against Russia in the Baltic - being particularly instrumental in the destruction of Vsevelod (74) (pic 1) and the capture of a convoy off Percola point. Her other major contribution of the Napoleonic wars came during the siege of Cadiz, 1810.

Her final active service came in 1840, at the blockade of Alexandria, before she was converted to a training ship. She survived in this role right through till 1949, so she has the distinction of having served during both the Napoleonic wars and WWII. Her scuttling during post war austerity was described as a 'criminal action against the maritime history of Britain', but her entire stern gallery was preserved and is on display at the National Maritime museum, along with her figurehead.

I imagine it was also relevant to our decision that she served as the flagship of Admiral Jack Aubrey in the final novel of the Aubrey-Maturin series, Blue at the Mizzen.

Everyone knows the lions and panels at the base of Nelson’s Column are actually from French guns taken in the peninsular war, but…

The decorative Corinthian style bronze top of the column (the frilly bit just below the statue) was cast from cannons salvaged from the wreck of HMS Royal George -a famous British warship that accidentally sank while anchored off Portsmouth in 1782.

Some of these bronze pieces currently up there weigh up to 900 pounds (410 kg) each and are strapped to the granite column centre with large metal belts.

The English and Dutch fleets had repeatedly fought each other with great intensity during the seventeenth century. After William III became King of England, however, these former enemies had to cooperate against France. Louis XIV had built up a powerful navy during the 1670s and 1680s under capable officers. On paper, it was the largest and most powerful fleet in Europe when the Nine Years’ War broke out in 1688.

The combined Anglo-Dutch fleet was ultimately larger, but cooperation was initially difficult. Memories of the Anglo-Dutch Wars were still fresh, and the Dutch were unhappy about having to serve under English admirals. William III had deliberately arranged it this way: the English army was, after all, commanded by his Dutch officers and confidants, and he did not want to antagonise the English any further.

Success initially lay with the French. At Bévéziers (Beachy Head), the French inflicted a heavy defeat on the Anglo-Dutch fleet. Although the victory was not decisive, it demonstrated that the French navy would be a formidable opponent.

In early 1692, James II, the deposed English king, was at Cherbourg, where he was preparing an invasion of England with French support. On 17 May, the French fleet sailed from Brest with the aim of defeating the English fleet, unaware that the English and Dutch fleets had already joined forces earlier that year. Off Cape Barfleur, it was attacked by a superior Anglo-Dutch fleet under Admiral Russell. The Dutch contingent formed the vanguard and was commanded by the experienced Philips van Almonde.

The French admiral Tourville realised that retreat would have been the wiser course, but Louis XIV’s orders to seek battle were so explicit that he did not dare ignore them. After a day of fierce fighting, the French fleet managed to disengage, but several days later the Allies destroyed part of the fleet at Cherbourg, including the 104-gun flagship Soleil Royal. On 23 and 24 May, James II watched as another twelve French ships and most of his transports were destroyed at La Hogue. With them disappeared any realistic hope of regaining his throne.

Tourville had fought bravely with a fleet only half the size of his Anglo-Dutch opponent and while hampered by fog, but the outcome was nevertheless a severe defeat. Winston Churchill later wrote of the victory that “it broke decisively for the whole of the wars of William and Anne all French pretensions to supremacy at sea. It was the Trafalgar of the seventeenth century.” Although the effect of the defeat is debated, it is clear that after Barfleur the French increasingly turned away from regular actions and instead to the guerre de course: attacks on the merchant shipping of the maritime powers.

This painting is by Ludolf Bakhuysen. At the centre is Tourville’s flagship, the Soleil Royal, shown just left of centre and seen from astern on her starboard quarter, engaged with the Allied flagship Britannia on her starboard side. Both fleets are sailing before the wind. The artist, however, ignores the fog and incorrectly suggests good visibility.

Behind the Soleil Royal, which is firing her stern guns, is the flagship Casteel Medenblick of Vice-Admiral-General Van Callenburgh, with another Dutch ship close on her port side also giving chase. More Dutch ships can be seen behind them, with an English yacht in the centre tacking into the wind. In the left foreground, a French ship is sinking, while boats and barges can be seen to the right. At the far right in the foreground, the wreck of a burnt-out ship is still smouldering.

UPDATE: Results! Implacable is the clear winner, and so we are now her crew.

as u/0pal23 has suggested, we ought to decide which 74-gun third rate to crew.

The options, covering a range of 74-gun designs, are:

Magnanime (1744), one of the first French 74s that caused quite a stir when captured by the Royal Navy)

Bellona (1760), Slade's classic 74-gun design

Implacable (1805), ex-Duguay-Trouin (1800), one of the 107-strong Téméraire-class

Achille (1798), a British-built Téméraire clone.

Montañés (1794), a Spanish 74.

Unlike the Royal Navy, we are a democratic group, and we will choose by vote.

Each ship will be in a comment, most upvoted comment wins.

The art here was painted by Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy, a French naval officer who specialised in marine art. As a result, its one of the best depictions of actual battle, with gun smoke heavily obstructing the view and realistic ship roll.

"Billy Culmer...was...a midshipman at the age of fifty-seven. Hard-drinking, scared of no man and a protégé of Lord Hood, Culmer let himself be talked into taking the examination for Lieutenant a second time. Old enough to be the father of the captain examining him, he lost his patience over a seamanship question about how to handle a ship in what he considered an impossible situation, told them it was humbug and that he would let the ship 'go on shore and be damned, and wish you were all on board her'. The examiners gave him a certificate, but after two commissions as Lieutenant he died in 1802."

- Life in Nelson's Navy by Dudley Pope

In 1658, the Swedish kingdom stood at the height of its power. King Charles X Gustav had attacked Denmark the previous year and, in the winter of 1658, marched his army across the frozen straits to the Danish islands. Denmark was forced to cede large territories, but only a few months later Charles Gustav unexpectedly resumed the war. This time, he intended to eliminate his opponent once and for all. Swedish troops landed on Zealand and laid siege to Copenhagen, while the Swedish fleet attempted to cut off access to the city through the Sound. The Danish capital held out, but became increasingly isolated. If Copenhagen fell, Denmark itself was in danger of disappearing as an independent power.

For the Dutch Republic, this was unacceptable. Swedish domination of the Sound threatened both the balance of power in Northern Europe and Dutch trade with the Baltic, which was of vital importance to the Republic. On 7 October, a large Dutch fleet under Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam therefore sailed to relieve Copenhagen. On 29 October, it encountered the Swedish blockade fleet in the Sound. A murderous battle followed, in which the Dutch fought their way through the Swedish fleet. The blockade was broken and Dutch troops, food and other supplies were able to reach Copenhagen. The Swedes were forced to abandon the siege. The immediate danger had been averted, but the war was far from over.

Michiel de Ruyter had not taken part in this first Dutch intervention. While Obdam sailed for the Sound, he was thousands of kilometres to the south, off the coast of Portugal. There he was blockading Lisbon with a Dutch squadron in an attempt to put pressure on Portugal following Dutch losses in Brazil. It was not until 1659 that he was called north to take part in the war against Sweden. The Danes had specifically requested his presence, and De Ruyter would play an important role in the remainder of the war.

One of his most important achievements was the recapture of the island of Funen, which was still occupied by a Swedish army. In the autumn of 1659, the Dutch fleet supported the landing of an Allied army at Kerteminde. The operation initially moved slowly. When the first landing boats with Danish soldiers ran aground near the shore, De Ruyter lost his patience. Dressed "like an ordinary sailor", he jumped into a small boat with four oarsmen and personally led the way. As Swedish cavalry opened fire, he called out to the soldiers: "Attack, men, attack, or you will all be killed!" His boat was among the first to reach the shore, although two men beside him were killed in the process. His example had the desired effect. Dutch troops began jumping overboard from their boats and wading ashore. After a fierce hand-to-hand fight, the Swedish defenders broke and fled towards Odense and Nyborg, unsuccessfully attempting to set Kerteminde on fire as they withdrew. At Nyborg, the Swedish army was finally defeated and the remaining troops were forced to surrender. Funen was once again in Danish hands.

King Frederick III of Denmark was particularly grateful to De Ruyter. On 20 December 1659, the Dutch admiral was received at the royal court. The king presented him with an expensive gold chain and a gold medal bearing his portrait and surrounded by precious stones. The queen personally placed the chain around De Ruyter's neck. But his work in Denmark was not yet finished. In 1660, he continued to put pressure on Sweden with the Dutch fleet. At Landskrona, he blockaded Swedish warships and thereby helped pressure the Swedes into making peace. The sudden death of Charles X Gustav in February ended Sweden's remaining hopes of turning the war back in its favour.

In May 1660, the Treaty of Copenhagen finally brought the war to an end. Denmark had survived and remained an independent power, while the Dutch Republic had secured its free access to the Baltic and prevented any single power from gaining complete control over the Sound. The Dutch intervention had thus achieved its principal objectives.

Before De Ruyter's departure, Frederick III wanted to reward him personally once more for his role in the war. On 12 August 1660, he raised De Ruyter to the hereditary Danish nobility. The honour also came with an annual pension of 2,000 guilders. A day later, De Ruyter personally took his leave of the king and departed for the Dutch Republic.

This often forgotten mission of Michiel de Ruyter took place before the Second (1664–1667) and Third (1672–1674) Anglo-Dutch Wars for which is primarily remembered today.