{{short description|Frigate of the Royal Navy}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox ship |section1={{Infobox ship/image |image= Opyt and Salsette.jpg |image_caption= }}
|section2={{Infobox ship/career |hide_header= |country=United Kingdom |flag=60px|Royal Navy Ensign |name=HMS ''Salsette'' |ordered=12 May 1802 |builder=Bombay Dockyard, M/Shipwright Jamsetjee Bomanjee{{sfnp|Low|1877|p=298, fn}} |laid_down=19 July 1803 |launched=17 January 1805 |acquired= |commissioned= |decommissioned= |in_service= |out_of_service= |renamed= |struck= |reinstated= |honours= |captured= |fate= Broken up 20 March 1874 |notes= }}
|section3={{Infobox ship/characteristics |hide_header= |header_caption={{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=158}} |class=''Perseverance''-class fifth-rate frigate |type= |tons_burthen=901{{small|{{frac|82|94}}}} (bm) |length=*{{convert|137|ft|0|in|m|1|abbr=on}} (overall) *{{convert|112|ft|11|in|m|1|abbr=on}} (keel) |beam={{convert|38|ft|9|in|m|1|abbr=on}} |draught= |hold_depth={{convert|13|ft|7|in|m|1|abbr=on}} |sail_plan= |propulsion=Sails |complement=260 |armament=*UD:26 × 18-pounder guns *QD: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades *Fc:2 × 9-pounder bow guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades |notes= }} }} '''HMS ''Salsette''''' (or ''Salcette'') was a ''Perseverance''-class fifth-rate frigate of a nominal 36 guns, launched in 1805. The East India Company built her for the Royal Navy at the company's dockyards in Bombay.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=158}} She was the Navy's first teak-built ship.{{sfnp|Low|1877|p=298, fn}}
She served in the Indies, the Baltic, the Mediterranean and the Home Station, taking several prizes and seeing a limited amount of action. She did participate in a single-ship action in the Baltic that was notable for the other, much smaller, vessel's heroism. ''Salsette'' was laid up after the end of the Napoleonic Wars but then went on to serve in a number of support functions until the Admiralty had her broken up in 1874.
==Naming== Built and launched as HMS ''Pitt'', she was renamed to ''Salsette'' on 19 February 1807. She is not to be confused with her sister ship {{HMS|Doris|1808|2}}, which was named ''Salsette'' prior to her acquisition by the Royal Navy, which renamed her ''Pitt''. This ''Pitt'' became ''Doris'' on 26 October 1807.{{sfnp|Gardiner|2006|p=11}} For a while the Navy had two frigates with the same name.
''Salsette'' received her name from Salsette Island in Maharashtra state on India's west coast. The metropolis of Bombay and the city of Thane lie on this island.
==Construction== ''Salsette'' was the first vessel the Bombay Dockyard built for the Royal Navy. As such, there were apparently many defects in her construction, which led the Navy to demand that the dockyard stick more closely to the design plans in the future.{{sfnp|Gardiner|2006|pp=12 & 70}}
==Initial service== In 1805 the Royal Navy commissioned ''Salsette'' (as ''Pitt'') at Bombay under Captain Walter Bathurst for the East Indies and she participated in the blockade of Mauritius in 1805–6.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=158}}
On 20 or 26 January ''Salsette'' chased a French prize and suffered one man killed and extensive damage to her hull by cannon fire from a fort on Pointe aux Cannoniere.<ref>''The Gentleman's Magazine'', vol. 97, p. 563.</ref>{{sfnp|James|1902|p=355}}
In 1806 she came under the command of Captain James Giles Vashon.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=158}} In February 1807 Captain George Waldegrave assumed command. ''Salsette'' left Madras on 29 September 1807 and arrived in Portsmouth in early 1808, having brought with her Lord William Bentinck, the late governor of Madras.<ref>''The Scots magazine and Edinburgh literary miscellany'', Vol. 70, Part 1, p. 67.</ref> At Portsmouth she underwent repairs from January 1808 to 17 March and then sailed to the Baltic.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=158}}
===Baltic=== ''Salsette'' was in the Baltic during the Gunboat War and the Anglo-Russian War (1807-1812). During this time she was again under the command of Captain Walter Bathurst.
On 30 April 1808, ''Salsette'' captured a Danish privateer after a chase of five hours off Moen island. The privateer was the ''Krathesminde'' (or ''Kratbesminde''), She had left Copenhagen five days previously but had made no captures. She was armed with eight guns and she had a crew of 31 men, under the command of her master Christian Oxholm.<ref>''The United service magazine'', Part 1, p. 417.</ref><ref>''Bulletins and other State Intelligence'' (1808)), p. 87.</ref> On 21 May ''Salsette'' captured a sloop of unknown name. That same month ''Salsette'' also shared with {{HMS|Lynx|1794|2}} in the capture of a schuyt.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=16989 |page=396|date= 4 March 1815}}</ref>
On 2 June ''Salsette'' and {{HMS|Magnet|1807|2}}, together with the boats of {{HMS|Centaur|1797|2}} and {{HMS|Implacable|1805|2}}, captured four Russian vessels that were carrying corn. They also captured the boat ''Humbug''.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=16303|page=1595|date=3 October 1809}}</ref> Three days later ''Salsette'' and ''Centaur'' captured ''Johanna''.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=16333|page=76|date=13 January 1810}}</ref>
On 23 June Bathurst and ''Salsette'' chased a Russian sloop-of-war to Reval. He did not capture her, but he did capture a galliot anchored outside the port. As Bathurst was securing the prize, lookouts spotted a Russian cutter off Norgen island,<ref name=Chronicle/> which defends Reval from the sea.
''Salsette'' set out in pursuit and eventually captured the cutter after having lost one man killed in a four-hour running fight. The cutter turned out to be the ''Opyt'' (aka ''Apith''), armed with fourteen 12-pounder carronades and carrying a crew of 63 men.<ref name=LG16167>{{London Gazette |issue=16167 |pages=1049–1050| date=30 July 1808}}</ref> In the pursuit and engagement the cutter had lost four men killed and eight wounded, including her commander, before she struck.<ref name=Chronicle>''Naval Chronicle'', vol. 20, p. 151.</ref> When her commander, Lieutenant Gavril C. Nevelskoy (also Novelski), tendered his sword, Bathurst returned it to him in recognition of his and his crew's heroic resistance. Bathurst then landed all the survivors near Libawa.{{sfnp|Tredrea|Sozaev|2010|p=71}} The British took ''Opyt'' into service as ''Baltic''.
On 20 August ''Salsette'' joined the British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir James Saumarez, which was blockading Rager Vik (Ragerswik or Rogerswick or Russian: Baltiyskiy) where the Russian fleet was sheltering after the British 74-gun third rates ''Implacable'' and ''Centaur'' had destroyed the Russian 74-gun {{Ship|Russian ship|Vsevolod|1796|2}}. ''Baltic''{{'}}s initial task was to land the prisoners that ''Implacable'' had taken from ''Vsevolod''.
Saumarez wanted to attack the fleet and ordered ''Baltic'' and {{HMS|Erebus|1807|2}} to be prepared as fireships. However, reconnaissance by ''Salsette'', among other vessels, revealed that the Russians had stretched a chain across the entrance to the harbor, precluding an attack by fireships. Saumarez then abandoned the plan.{{sfnp|James|1902|pp=302—303}}
During the winter of 1808–09, ''Salsette'' was escorting a convoy of some 12 merchantmen, together with ''Magnet'', {{HMS|Fama|1808|2}}, {{HMS|Salorman|1808|2}} and two Swedish naval vessels, when ice in the Baltic trapped the convoy. Most of the vessels, save ''Salsette'', were lost,{{sfnp|Gosset|1986|p=69}} and ''Salsette'' herself could not return to port for some two months.{{sfnp|Ross|1838|p=130}} ''Salsette''{{'}}s first Lieutenant at the time, Lieutenant Henderson, many years later wrote to Jamsetjee Bomanjee reporting that she had survived due to the quality of her teak hull.{{sfnp|Low|1877|p=298, fn}} In June 1819 he was in Bombay as captain of the merchant ship {{ship||Stakesby|1814 ship|2}} and presented Bomanjee with a small clock as a token of appreciation.<ref>''Asiatic Journal'' (1820), Vol. 9, p. 41.</ref>
==Continuing active service== On 29 July 1809 ''Salsette'' escorted the vessels carrying the troops of Lieutenant-General Sir John Hope across the Channel where they were to participate in the Walcheren Expedition. She herself carried the left wing of the 28th Regiment of Foot.{{sfnp|Cadell|1835|p=37}} In the Stone Deeps Rear Admiral Sir Richard Keats boarded ''Salsette''. Then Sir Home Popham in {{HMS|Sabrina|1806|6}} led the division to the Roompot.{{sfnp|Tracy|1999|p=272}}
In 1810 ''Salsette'' sailed to Malta. On the way she captured a French brig off the island of Marettimo.{{sfnp|van der Voort|1972|p=21}} She then proceeded to Smyrna, where Lord Byron cadged a ride to Constantinople.{{sfnp|van der Voort|1972|p=21}} While she was at the Dardanelles, on 3 May a Lieutenant William Ekenhead of her Marines and Lord Byron swam the Hellespont from Sestos to Abydos, that is, from the European to the Asian side.{{efn|Not long after this feat, Ekenhead was swept from ''Salsette''{{'}}s deck and drowned near Malta. As a result, he never saw his name immortalized in the second canto of ''Don Juan''.{{sfnp|van der Voort|1972|p=23}} Other accounts report that when ''Salsette'' reached Malta Ekenhead received a promotion to Captain, got drunk, and fell to his death from a bridge at Valletta.{{sfnp|Chamier|1832|p=115}}}} Although the Hellespont at that point was only about a mile wide, strong currents forced the two swimmers to cover about four miles, which took them both a little more than an hour.{{sfnp|Tolmer|1882|pp=87–8}}
''Salsette'' sailed from Constantinople to Toulon to join the blockade there, and then in November to Malta where Bathurst removed to the 74-gun {{HMS|Fame|1805|2}} and Captain Henry Montressor took command of ''Salsette''.{{sfnp|van der Voort|1972|p=26}} His successors included William Bertie (who drowned in December 1810), Commander John Hollingsworth, and in 1811, Captain Henry Hope.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=158}}
On 29 June 1811 she captured the slaver ''Expedition'' off Mauritius. The prize crew took the ship and the slaves on her to the Portuguese colony of Goa because selling slaves was illegal in British India, but not in Goa. ''Salsette'' shared the prize money with the crews of {{HMS|Drake|1808|2}} and {{HMS|Cornwallis|1805|2}}.<ref>[http://www.houghton.idv.hk/chapter18.htm History 1793–1844 from the newspapers] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721093016/http://www.houghton.idv.hk/chapter18.htm |date=21 July 2011 }}</ref>
On 21 April 1812, ''Salsette'' captured the French privateer ''Comète'' in the Mediterranean.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=158}} She carried two 18-pounder guns and had a crew of 45 men.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=16624|page=1397|date=18 July 1812}}</ref> The head money (a per head bounty for each of the 45 men captured) was not paid until 1831.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=18783|page=476|date=11 March 1831}}</ref>
In September ''Salsette'' was at Smyrna where she took on board the explorer and antiquarian William Ouseley.{{sfnp|Ouseley|1823|p=538}} They sailed back to Britain via the Greek isles, Toulon, and Alicante.
Then on 14 October 1812 ''Salsette'' captured the three-masted lugger ''Mercure'' off the Isle of Wight.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=158}}{{efn|Ouseley reports that she was the former ''Marie Louise'' of Cherbourg.}} This vessel carried 16 guns and had a crew of 70,{{sfnp|Norman|1887|p=449}} and ''Salsette'' took her into Portsmouth.{{sfnp|Ouseley|1823|p=542}}
In December 1812 Captain John Bowen assumed command and on 25 April 1813 ''Salsette'' proceeded to Madras, convoying East Indiamen sailing there. In May 1814 she unsuccessfully pursued the American privateer {{ship||Hyder Ally|1814 ship|2}}, which {{HMS| Owen Glendower|1808|2}} captured a few days later.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=16983|page=234|date=11 February 1815}}</ref> On 27 November 1814 ''Salsette'' saved the ''Cornwallis'', of Calcutta. A severe gale had dis-masted ''Cornwallis'' and ''Salsette'' had brought her into Trincomalee. The Vice Admiralty Court awarded ''Salsette'' 7.5% of the value of the vessel and her cargo, which were estimated at upwards of £90,000 sterling.<ref>''The Asiatic journal and monthly miscellany'', (Feb 1816), Volume 1, p. 192.</ref>{{efn|A first-class share of the prize money was £1405 12s 1d, and an eighth-class share, which would accrue to a ship's boy, was £2 18s.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=17744|page=1827|date=8 September 1821}}</ref>}}
In 1816 ''Salsette'' escorted a convoy back to Britain. On 12 May, ''Salsette'' stopped at St Helena ''en route'', which gave Bowen the opportunity to be presented to the Emperor Napoleon.{{sfnp|Chaplin|1919|p=61}} She arrived in Plymouth in June 1816 to pay off.
==Post-war career and fate== ''Salsette'' was laid up at Portsmouth. The Admiralty had her housed over in November 1823 but she remained there in ordinary.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=158}} In July 1831 she was fitted as a lazaretto for Hull.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=158}} In October 1835 she was fitted as a receiving ship at Woolwich. On 7 September 1869 the Admiralty ordered her moved to Sheerness. ''Salsette'' was broken up on 20 March 1874 at Chatham.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=158}}
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==Citations== {{reflist}}
==References== * {{cite book | last=Cadell | first=Charles | title=Narrative of the Campaigns of the Twenty-eighth Regiment, Since Their Return from Egypt in 1802 | publisher=Whittaker & Company |location=London | year=1835 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oYNIAAAAYAAJ }} * {{cite book | last=Chamier | first=Frederick | title=The Life of a Sailor | publisher=R. Bentley | series=The Life of a Sailor | volume=1 | year=1832 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CqdDAQAAMAAJ }} * {{cite web |last=Chaplin |first=Thomas Hancock Arnold |title=A St. Helena who's who : or, A directory of the island during the captivity of Napoleon |year=1919 | url=https://archive.org/details/b29930418 |publisher=Arnold L. Humphreys |location=London |edition=2nd Revised and Enlarged }} * {{cite book | last=Gardiner | first=Robert | title=Frigates of the Napoleonic Wars | publisher=Naval Institute Press | location=Annapolis, Md | year=2006 | isbn=978-1-59114-283-6}} * {{cite book|first1=William Patrick |last1=Gosset |year=1986 |title=The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900 |publisher=Mansell |isbn=0-7201-1816-6 }} *{{cite book|last=James |first=William |author-link = William James (naval historian)|year=1902 |title=The naval history of Great Britain from the declaration of war by France in 1793, to the accession of George IV |edition=New six volume |volume=4 (1805–1809) |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |url=https://archive.org/details/navalhistoryofgr04jameuoft}} * {{cite book |last=Low |first=Charles Rathbone |authorlink=Charles Rathbone Low |year=1877 |title=History of the Indian Navy: (1613-1863) |publisher=R. Bentley and son}} * {{cite web |last=Norman |first=Charles Boswell |title=The Corsairs Of France |year=1887 | url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.91173 |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston And Company |location=London}} * {{cite web |last=Ouseley |first=William |title=Travels in Various Countries of the East; more Particularly Persia |year=1823 |volume=3 | url=https://archive.org/details/dli.venugopal.672 |location=London |publisher=Rodwell and Martin }} * {{cite book | last=Ross | first=John | title=Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord De Saumarez: From Original Papers in Possession of the Family | publisher=R. Bentley | series=British naval history in the nineteenth century | volume=2 | year=1838 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2QUFAAAAYAAJ }} * {{cite web |last=Tolmer |first=Alexander |title=Reminiscences of an adventurous and chequered career at home and at the Antipodes |year=1882 |url=https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesan01tolmgoog |volume=1 |publisher= Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington |location=London }} * {{cite book |last=Tracy |first=Nicholas |title=The Naval Chronicle 1799-1804: The Contemporary Record of the Royal Navy at War. During the War with the French Consulate | year=1999 | oclc=929534842 |publisher=Stackpole Books |isbn=978-0-8117-1108-1 |location=Mechanicsburg }} * {{cite book |first1=John|last1=Tredrea|first2=Eduard|last2=Sozaev|title=Russian Warships in the Age of Sail 1696–1860|publisher=Seaforth|year=2010|isbn=978-1-84832-058-1}} * {{cite book |last=van der Voort |first=Petrus Johannes | title=The pen and the quarter-deck. A study of the life and works of Captain Frederick Chamier, RN | publisher=Leiden University Press | publication-place=Leiden | year=1972 | isbn=978-90-6021-153-3 | oclc=641072}} * {{cite book |first1=Rif |last1=Winfield |title=British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates |publisher=Seaforth Publishing|year=2008 |isbn=9781861762467}} {{Perseverance class frigate}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salsette (1805)}} Category:Frigates of the Royal Navy Category:1805 ships Category:Perseverance-class frigates