HMS Indefatigable

HMS Indefatigable - 1794

HMS Indefatigable was one of 64 third-rate 64-gun ships of the line of the Ardent class, designed by Sir Thomas Slade for the Royal Navy in 1761. She was also the first Royal Navy ship to bear the name. She was built as a ship of the line, but her entire active service took place after her conversion to a 44-gun Razee frigate. She had a long career under several distinguished commanders, serving throughout the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. She captured, alone or in company, some 27 prizes, and the Admiralty authorized the issue of four bars to the Naval General Service Medal in 1847 to any surviving members of her crews from the respective actions. She was scrapped in 1816.

The Indefatigable was commissioned on August 3, 1780 (long after Slade's death), and her keel was laid in May 1781 at Bucklers Hard shipyard in Hampshire, which was owned by Henry Adams. She was launched in early July 1784 and completed for the Royal Navy as a 64-gun third-rate two-decker at Portsmouth Dockyard between July 11 and September 13 of that year. The construction costs amounted to 25,210 pounds, 4 shillings and 5 pence; the total costs including equipment and copper coating amounted to 36,154 pounds, 18 shillings and 7 pence. At this point, she was already anachronistic for the role of a ship of the line, as the French were only building the more powerful 74-gun ships, and she was never commissioned in that role.

In 1794, she was dismantled; her upper gun deck was cut away to convert her into a large and heavily armed frigate. The original intention was to keep her twenty-six 24-pounder guns on her gun deck and to mount eight 12-pounder guns on her quarterdeck and a further four on her forecastle, which would have made her a 38-gun ship. However, at that time the carronade was becoming more and more popular in the navy, and her planned armament was changed on December 5, 1794, with the addition of four 42-pounder carronades on her aft deck and two on her forecastle. The Indefatigable was then classified as a 44-gun frigate of the fifth class, along with the Magnanime and the Anson, which were converted around the same time. The work was carried out from September 1794 to February 1795 in Portsmouth and cost 8,764 pounds. On February 17, 1795, two more 12-pounder guns were added on the aft deck, although her official classification remained unchanged.

The stern was shortened to behind the mizzenmast. Pellew even demanded that the stern be removed altogether because he was concerned about the possible windage, and to replace the galleries with stern badges. However, since the Admiralty had invested a lot of money and two years in the conversion of the ship, only the stern was shortened. The masts and rigging were originally those of a 50-gun ship, but this was soon changed when it was found that the ship was too unstable with this arrangement. Therefore, they returned to the original arrangement of the 64-gun ship, with only the lower masts shortened. The actual armament of the Indefatigable for most of Pellew's command consisted of 26 x 24-pounder guns, 18 x 42-pounder carronades and 2 x 12-pounder long guns for pursuers. (This was certainly the configuration when she captured the Virginie in April 1796). The Admiralty also mention two 14-pounder guns on the afterdeck on the port side (in addition to the twelve shown on the original design). In view of this, the quarterdeck bulwarks have been modified for the construction kit.

The Indefatigable first entered service in December 1794 under Captain Sir Edward Pellew. He commanded her until early 1799.

On March 9, 1795, the Indefatigable, the Concorde and the Jason captured numerous French ships: the Temeraire, the Minerve, the Gentille, the Regeneration, as well as a brig and a sloop with unknown names. In October, the Dutch East Indiaman Zeelilee was shipwrecked off the Scilly Isles, with the loss of 25 of its 70 crew members. The Indefatigable rescued the survivors.

On March 20, 1796, the Indefatigable and her squadron were pursuing three French corvettes when the 26-gun Volage ran aground at the mouth of the Loire. The Volage lost her masts when she grounded, but the French were able to refloat her later. Her two sister ships Sagesse and Eclatant escaped into the river. During this operation, four men were wounded on the Amazon.

Between March 11 and 21, the squadron of Indefatigable captured the ships Favorite Sultana, Friends, Providence, Four Marys, Aimable Justine and Nouvelle Union. They also destroyed two unnamed brigs and a chasse maree. The ships that shared the prize money were: Indefatigable, Concorde, Révolutionnaire, Amazon, Argo and the hired armed cutter Dolly and the hired armed lugger Duke of York.
 

On 13 April 1796, Indefatigable was in pursuit of a French frigate. Pellew signalled to Révolutionnaire to cut her off from the shore. Révolutionnaire then captured the French frigate Unité, having fired two broadsides at her. Nine men were killed and 11 wounded on the Unité; Révolutionnaire suffered no losses. The Royal Navy took the frigate into service as HMS Unite.

On the morning of April 20, 1796, the Indefatigable sighted the French frigate Virginie with 44 guns off the Lizard Peninsula. Indefatigable, Amazon and Concorde pursued Virginie, with Indefatigable catching up shortly after midnight on April 21 after a 15-hour chase of 270 km (168 mi). After an hour and three quarters of the battle, she still had not fired and had outmaneuvered Indefatigable somewhat when Concorde arrived. Seeing that she was outnumbered, Virginie attacked. Virginie carried 44 guns, 18- and 9-pounders, and had a crew of 340 under the command of Citizen Bergeret, Capitaine de Vaisseau. She suffered 14 or 15 dead, 17 seriously wounded, and 10 slightly wounded. In addition, her hold was up to one meter high under water, because it was covered with bullet holes. The Indefatigable had no losses to complain about. Pellew sent the Virginie to Plymouth under the escort of the Concorde and followed her the next day with the Amazon, which had suffered some damage. The Royal Navy took the Virginie into service as the Virginie.

In July 1796, £20,000 in premiums were distributed for the first time for the capture of Unite and Virginie. Indefatigable shared this with Amazon, Révolutionnaire, Concorde and Argo. Apparently, the Duke of York also received some or all of the prize money. In 1847, the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with the clasp “Indefatigable 20 Apr. 1796”.

On June 12, after a 24-hour chase, Indefatigable, Amazon, Concorde, Revolutionaire and Phoebe took two French brigs off Ouessant – the Trois Couleurs and the Blonde (also called Betsey). The Trois Couleurs had 10 guns and a crew of 70 on board. Blonde had 16 guns and a crew of 95. Both ships were commanded by a frigate captain and had set out from Brest two days earlier on a six-week cruise, but had not yet taken any prizes.

In September 1796, Indefatigable, Phoebe, Révolutionnaire and Amazon captured five Spanish ships.

On October 1, Indefatigable, Amazon, Révolutionnaire, Phoebe and Jason participated in the capture of the Vrow Delenea Maria. The next day, Pellew and Indefatigable captured the privateer schooner Ariel of Boston off Corunna. Prior to this, Pellew had recaptured the brig Queen of Naples, which had sailed from Lisbon to Cork. From her, he learned that two privateers were in the vicinity of Corunna, one of whom had captured a brig from Lisbon two days earlier with a cargo of bale goods. Pellew immediately set off for Corunna and was able to intercept the Ariel. She had 12 cannons and a crew of 75 men. She had been 14 days away from Bordeaux. Her companion, the schooner Vengeur, was just as strong, and Pellew still hoped to catch him too. However, the Bristolian brig had made it to the port of Ferrol, where Pellew had previously chased two French frigates.

There is much more to tell - you will find more facts about the history as a supplement to the construction kit in the instructions.

Kit contents

-The kit contains all the material needed to build HMS Indefatigable with all masts, yards and rigging.
-Laser-cut parts made of MDF and clear acetate for the gallery windows. All visible parts are laser-cut from pearwood panels.
-51 laser-cut panels, including 37 panels made of pearwood
-Laser-cut ladders and gratings made of pearwood are included.
-Lower decks made of plywood to support the planking.
-High-quality red alder for the deck planking.
-All areas on and above deck are pre-cut.
-6 sheets of photo-etched brass, in three different thicknesses.
High-resolution 3D-printed gun and carronade barrels (black) together with black acrylic cannon balls of the correct diameter.
-Built-in gunport locations in the frame and cut-to-size inner bulwarks.
-Double planked hull in lime wood for the first planking and pear wood for the second planking.
-Walnut round rods for masts and yards.
-Several sizes of black and natural rigging yarn, as well as all necessary blocks and virgins.
-The colored construction manual is our most comprehensive to date, with thirty-one blueprints containing all mast and rigging drawings.
-Highly detailed laser-cut and engraved transom decoration and 3D-printed Indefatigable figure.
-3D-printed transom lanterns, with glazing.
Five highly detailed boats made of pear wood.
Aft cabins with engraved floors and complete furnishings!
Fine black chain for rudders.
Highly detailed 3D-printed ship's stove with brick base.
Includes a figure of Captain Pellew.
 

Technical data
Scale: 1:64
Length: 1340 mm
Length hull: 880 mm
Height: 882 mm
Width: 500 mm