HMS Phaeton (1782)

Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Phaeton was a 38 gun, fifth rate of Britain's Royal Navy. This frigate was most noted for her intrusion into Nagasaki harbour in 1808. John Smallshaw (Smallshaw & Company) built Phaeton in Liverpool between 1780 and 1782. She participated in numerous engagements during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars during which service she captured many prizes. Francis Beaufort, inventor of the Beaufort Wind Scale, was a lieutenant on Phaeton when he distinguished himself during a successful cutting out expedition. Phaeton sailed to the Pacific in 1805, and returned in 1812. She was finally sold on 26 March 1828.

Phaeton was commissioned in March 1782. Within a year she had been paid off.

In December 1792 Phaeton was commissioned under Sir Andrew Snape Douglas. In March 1793 Phaeton captured the 4 gun privateer lugger Aimable Liberté. Then on 14 April Phaeton sighted the French privateer Général Dumourier (or Général Du Mourier), of twenty two 6 pounder guns and 196 men, and her Spanish prize, the St Jago, 140 leagues to the west of Cape Finisterre. Phaeton was part of Admiral John Gell's squadron and the entire squadron set off in pursuit, but it was Phaeton that made the actual capture. St Jago had been sailing from Lima to Spain when General Dumourier captured her on 11 April. In trying to fend off General Dumourier, St Jago fought for five hours, losing 10 men killed and 37 wounded, before she struck. She also suffered extensive damage to her upper works. St Jagos cargo, which had taken two years to collect, was the richest ever trusted on board a single ship. Early estimates put the value of the cargo as some £1.2 and £1.3 million. The most valuable portion of the cargo was a large number of gold bars that had a thin covering of pewter and that were listed on the manifest as "fine pewter". General Dumourier had taken on board 680 cases, each containing 3000 dollars, plus several packages worth two to three thousand pounds. The ships that conveyed St Jago to Portsmouth were , , , and Phaeton. The money came over London Bridge in 21 wagons, escorted by a party of light dragoons, and lodged in the Tower of London. On 28 May Phaeton took the 20 gun French corvette Prompte off the Spanish Coast. The Royal Navy took Prompte into service under her existing name. Together with , Phaeton took two privateers in the Channel in June Poisson Volante, of ten guns, and Général Washington. On 27 November Phaeton and were among the six vessels of a squadron that captured the 28 gun French corvette Blonde off Ushant. In February 1794 Phaeton was paid off, but the next month Captain William Bentinck recommissioned her. During the battle of the Glorious First of June, Phaeton came to the aid of the dismasted While doing so, Phaeton exchanged broadsides with the French ship of the line French ship Impétueux. Phaeton suffered three men killed and five wounded. She was the only one of the support vessels there to suffer casualties. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the survivors to that date of all the vessels at the battle, including Phaeton, the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "1 June 1794".

In September, Phaeton came under the command of Captain Stopford. In May 1795 Phaeton escorted Princess Caroline of Brunswick to England. Then began what would become a spectacular string of prize taking. During Stopford's service in the Channel, Phaeton captured some 13 privateers and three vessels of war, and also recovered numerous vessels that the French had taken. On 10 March 1796, Phaeton engaged and captured the French corvette Bonne Citoyenne off Cape Finisterre. She was armed with twenty 9 pounder guns and had a crew of 145 men. She had left Rochefort on 4 March in company with the French frigates French frigate Forte, French frigate Seine, and French frigate Régénérée , and the brig , all sailing for the Île de France with troops and military supplies. Stopford took her back to England as his prize. The Royal Navy then bought her in as , a sixth rate sloop of war. While cruising in the Channel, on 6 March 1797, Phaeton took the French privateer Actif. She was armed with 18 guns and had a crew of 120 men. She had sailed from Nantes on 17 February and ten days later had captured the packet ship Princess Elizabeth, which was her only prize. On 28 May, Phaeton, , and the hired armed lugger Hired armed lugger Speedwell detained Frederickstadt. On 16 September Phaeton took the 6 gun Chasseur. Phaeton also recaptured three British vessels. These were Adamant (24 September), Arcade (3 October), and Recovery (20 October). On New Year's Day, 1798, Phaeton took Aventure. On 19 February she took the 18 gun Légère in the Channel. On 21 February, 1798 she, , and recaptured American armed mechantman "Eliza" that had been captured by French privateer "Don Guicote" on 13 February (seems to be some conflicting info on which ship actually made the capture). On 22 March she participated in damaging the 36 gun frigate Charente near the Cordouan lighthouse. Phaeton fired on Charente, chasing her first into range of the guns of the 74 gun third rate , under the command of Captain Sir John Borlase Warren, with whom she exchanged broadsides. Charente grounded, but then so did Canada. Phaeton and Anson had to abandon the chase to pull Canada free. In the meantime, Charente threw her guns overboard, floated free, and reached the river of Bordeaux, much the worse for wear. With Anson, Phaeton took the 18 gun privateer Mercure on 31 August. Mercure was pierced for 20 guns and had a crew of 132 men. She was one day out of Bordeaux and had captured nothing. efn|Mercure was a former British merchant vessel that the French had captured in May 1793. She had then served in the French Navy, first as Mercury of London and then under other names until in February 1798 the French Navy renamed her Mercure and handed her over at Bordeaux for service as a privateer. Although Stopford described her as "quite a new Vessel, Copper bottomed and fastened", Stopford, in his letter, described Flore as a frigate of 36 guns and 255 men. She was eight days out of Boulogne on a cruise. Flore had also served the Royal Navy in the American Revolutionary War. Then on 8 October Phaeton took the 16 gun privateer Lévrier. Together with and , on 20 November she took Hirondelle. On 24 November 1798, Phaeton captured the French privateer brig Resolue (or Resolu). Resolue was armed with 18 guns and carried a crew of 70 men. She had previously captured the English merchant ship General Wolfe, sailing from Poole to Newfoundland and an American sloop sailing from Boston to Hamburg. Stag later recaptured the American. On 6 December, Phaeton and Stag captured the French privateer brig Resource. She was armed with 10 guns and carried a crew of 66 men. She had sailed from La Rochelle two days previously and was sailing for the African coast. shared in the prize money for both Resolu and Resource.

In July 1803 Captain George Cockburn recommissioned Phaeton for service in the Far East. Later in 1804 she and chased the French privateer Henriette back to Port Louis. Also, Phaeton recaptured the Mornington, which the French privateer Nicholas Surcouf in Caroline had captured on 14 August 1804; Captain Fallonard of the brig Île de France recaptured Mornington. The British recaptured Mornington again as she continued to sail under the British Ensign until she was burnt in the Bay of Bengal in 1816. On 2 August 1805, under Captain John Wood, Phaeton fought the 40 gun French frigate Sémillante, Captain Léonard Bernard Motard, in the San Bernardino Strait off San Jacinto, Philippines, together with the 18 gun , Captain Edward Ratsey. After exchanges of fire first with Harrier and then with Phaeton, Sémillante took refuge under the guns of a shore battery. Unable to dislodge her, the two British vessels eventually sailed off, each having suffered two men wounded. Sémillante was reported to have suffered 13 killed and 36 wounded. After resupplying at San Jacinto, Sémillante intended to sail for Mexico in March 1805 to fetch specie for the Philippines; the encounter with Phaeton and Harrier foiled the plan. Motard returned to the Indian Ocean, operating for the next three years against British shipping from Île de France. On 18 November 1805 Phaeton was at Saint Helena. There she took on board 32 officers and crew from the East Indiaman Brunswick, which the French had captured. The French had released them at the Cape of Good Hope and a cartel had delivered them to St Helena. Phaeton was already carrying the Marquis of Wellesley and his suite, who was returning to England after having served as Governor General of India. They arrived at Spithead on 13 January 1806. In October 1806 Captain John Wood took command of Phaeton. Then in July 1808, Captain Fleetwood Pellew succeeded him.

After the French had annexed the Dutch Republic and Napoleon began to use its resources against Britain, Royal Navy ships started to attack Dutch shipping. In 1808, Phaeton, by now under the command of Pellew, entered Nagasaki's harbour to ambush some Dutch trading ships that were expected to arrive shortly. Phaeton entered the harbour on 4 October surreptitiously under a Dutch flag. Despite the arrival of the "Dutch" ship being later in the season than normal, the Japanese and Dutch representatives did not suspect anything. So, Dutch representatives from their Nagasaki trading enclave of Dejima rowed out to welcome the visiting ship. But, as they approached, Phaeton lowered a tender and captured the Dutch representatives, while their Japanese escorts jumped into the sea and fled. Pellew held the Dutch representatives hostage and demanded supplies (water, food, fuel) to be delivered to Phaeton in exchange for their return. The cannons in the Japanese harbour defenses were old and most could not even fire. Consequently, the meager Japanese forces in Nagasaki were seriously out gunned and unable to intervene. At the time, it was the Saga clan's turn to uphold the policy of Sakoku and to protect Nagasaki, but they had economized by stationing only 100 troops there, instead of the 1,000 officially required for the station. The Nagasaki Magistrate, Matsudaira Yasuhide (Nagasaki bugyō) [ja], immediately ordered troops from the neighbouring areas of Kyūshū island. The Japanese mobilized a force of 8,000 samurai and 40 ships to confront the Phaeton, but they could not arrive for a few days. In the meantime, the Nagasaki Magistrate decided to respond to the ship's demands, and provided supplies. Phaeton left two days later on 7 October, before the arrival of Japanese reinforcements, and after Pellew had learned that the Dutch trading ships would not be coming that year. He left behind a letter for the Dutch director Hendrik Doeff. The Nagasaki Magistrate, Matsudaira, took responsibility by performing seppuku. Following the attack of the Phaeton, the Bakufu reinforced coastal defenses, and promulgated a law prohibiting foreigners coming ashore, on pain of death (1825–1842, Muninen uchikowashi rei). The Bakufu also requested that official interpreters learn English and Russian, departing from their prior focus on Dutch studies. In 1814, the Dutch interpreter Motoki Shozaemon wrote the first English Japanese dictionary (6,000 words). Although the incident revealed the vulnerability of the Tokugawa system to foreign interference, the Bakufu did not enter into more fundamental reform of its defenses because of its priority on maintaining the internal balance of power with the country's daimyo.

Pellew was confirmed in his rank of post captain on 14 October 1808, and went on to see action in the Invasion of Île de France in 1810 and the reduction of Java in 1811. In May, Phaeton escorted the second division of British troops, commanded by Major General Frederick Augustus Wetherall, from Madras to Prince of Wales Island, and then on to Malacca. Once the expedition reached Batavia, Phaeton and three of the other frigates patrolled for French frigates known to be in the area. On 31 August a landing party from Phaeton and , together with marines from , captured a fort from the French at Sumenep on the island of Madura, off Java. The British lost three men killed and 28 wounded. Pellew sailed Phaeton home in August 1812, escorting a convoy of East Indiamen. For his services he received a present of 500 guineas and the thanks of the East India Company.

In 1816, Capt. Frances Stanfell sailed Phaeton from Sheerness, bound for Saint Helena and the Cape of Good Hope. She arrived at St Helena on 14 April 1816, where she delivered its newly appointed military governor, Lieutenant General Sir Hudson Lowe, his wife, Susan de Lancey Lowe, and her two daughters by a former marriage. Lowe had been expressly sent to the island to serve as the gaolor of Napoleon Bonaparte, who would die there in exile in 1821. In April 1818, Capt. W. H. Dillon commissioned Phaeton. In the autumn of 1818 Lieutenant John Geary, who had joined Phaeton at her re commissioning, faced a court martial. The charges were that he had concealed two deserters from the band of the 18th Regiment of Foot. More formally, the charges were: "Inveigling musicians from one of the Regiments in garrison and with practicing deception towards the officers who were sent on board to search for them." The board found him guilty. He was severely reprimanded and dismissed from Phaeton. Robert Cavendish Spencer, late of , a captain on the board, thought enough of Geary to shake his hand and offer him a job in the future. Several years later Spencer made good on his offer. Phaeton went on to the East Indies. In October 1819 she was paid off and then recommissioned within the month under Captain William Augustus Montagu, for Halifax. She was paid off in September 1822. She was immediately recommissioned under Captain Henry Evelyn Pitfield Sturt. She sailed for Gibraltar and Algeciras and was paid off some three years later.

Phaeton was sold on 11 July 1827 to a Mr. Freake for £3,430, but the Navy Office cancelled the sale, "Mr. Freake having been declared insane." She was finally sold on 26 March 1828 for £2,500 to Joshua Cristall for breaking up.

The Nagasaki Harbour Incident plays a role in the novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. However, this depiction is highly fictionalised; the ship in the novel is HMS Phoebus, the incident occurs in 1800 and finding no Dutch ships the Phoebus of the novel bombards Dejima. The Nagasaki Harbour Incident plays a role in the novel Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik. This depiction is historical fantasy; the Japanese sink HMS Phaeton with dragons stationed at Nagasaki at the time.