HMS Iphigenia (1780)

HMS Iphigenia was a 32–gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1781, and served barely twenty years when she was accidentally lost in a fire at Alexandria in 1801.[1]

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Iphigenia.

History
Great Britain
Name: HMS Iphigenia
Ordered: 21 October 1778
Builder: James Betts, Mistleythorn
Laid down: December 1778
Launched: 30 September 1780
Completed: 1781
Commissioned: 1782
Honours and
awards:		 Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Schiermonnikoog 12 Augt. 1799"
Fate: Broken up in July 1811
General characteristics as built
Class and type: 32-gun fifth-rate Amazon-class frigate (1773) frigate
Length:
  • 126 ft 3 in (38.48 m) (gundeck)
  • 104 ft 1 in (31.72 m) (keel)
Beam: 35 ft 1.75 in (10.7125 m)
Draught:
  • 8 ft 4 in (2.54 m) (forwards)
  • 13 ft 0 in (3.96 m) (aft)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 220
Armament:
  • Upper deck: 26 × 12-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 x 6-pounder guns + 4 x 18-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 x 6-pounder guns + 2 × 18-pounder carronades

American War of Independence

In 1782, Iphigenia was sent to the Jamaica station and served there for three years. In 1786, she paid off at Sheerness.[2]

French Revolutionary Wars

After returning from Jamaica station, she served closer to She was next employed on the Milford and Irish stations in the Irish Sea. In response to the French invasion of Belgium in the War of the First Coalition, at the end of 1792, she took part in the Scheldt expedition that was foiled by ice in the estuary. While operating in the Channel, Iphegenia captured the French privateer Elizabeth on 16 February 1793[3]

With the end of the coalition, Britain was left facing France alone. Through the remainder of the 1790s, the Royal Navy was the bulwark of defense against a possible Franco-Dutch invasion. By 1799, she was serving as a hospital ship at Plymouth.

In response to the French campaign in Egypt and Syria, Iphegenia was fitted out as a troopship in 1800 at Portsmouth. She sailed with the fleet to Egypt arriving in March 1801. She landed troops at Aboukir Bay on 8 March 1801.

Fate

She had been to Cyprus to fetch water and timber but shortly after her return to Alexandria she was discovered to be on fire. The amount of wood on her made it impossible to put the fire out. There were no casualties.[4] Because Iphigenia served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 8 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, which the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.[5]|group=Note}}She remained in port in Alexandria until she was burnt by accident 20 July 1801. All the crew were saved.[6]

Notes, citations and references

Notes

    Citations

    1. http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhillips/info.php?ref=0143 Michael Phillips' ships of the old Navy
    2. Phillips
    3. Phillips
    4. Naval Chronicle, Vol.6, p.250.
    5. "No. 21077". The London Gazette. 15 March 1850. pp. 791–792.
    6. Phillips

    References

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