HMS Ruby (1776)
HMS Ruby was a John Williams designed 64 gun third rate ship of the line, built at Woolwich Dockyard by M/shipwright William Grey until the March of 1777, and completed by Nicholas Phillips. Ordered on the 30th of November, 1769 and approved on the 12th of March, 1770, she was laid down in the 9th of September 1772, and launched on 26 November, 1776. She was finally completed on the 27th of February, 1778.
Ruby
History Great Britain Name: HMS Ruby Ordered: 30 November 1769 Builder: Woolwich Dockyard Laid down: 9 September 1772 Launched: 26 November 1776 Fate: Broken up, 1821 General characteristics Class and type: Intrepid Class 64 gun ship of the line Tons burthen: 1374 (bm) Length: 159 ft 6 in (48.62 m) (gundeck) Beam: 44 ft 6 in (13.51 m) Depth of hold:
Draught:19 ft (5.8 m)
11ft 2in / 16ft 10inPropulsion: Sails Sail plan: Full rigged ship Armament:
- Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns
- Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns
- QD: 10 × 4-pounder guns
- Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns
Service.
HMS Ruby was commissioned in the September of 1777, and sailed for Jamaica under Captain Michael John Everitt on the 24th of May 1778.
On the 2nd of June, 1779 whilst cruising off Haiti, Ruby, in company with Aeolus 32, and the 18 gun Sloop Jamaica, were sailing in the Bay of Gonave when they fell in with the 36 gun French frigate Prudente under the command of one Captain d’Escars. Ruby chased the Prudente for several hours and was much inconvenienced by the well directed fire of the enemy's stern chasers. Captain Everitt and a member of the crew were actually killed by this fire.. Just before sunset Ruby eventually came into close range of Prudente, and forced her surrender, with the loss of two killed and three wounded. The British Navy took Prudente into service under the same name.
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Representation of the Distressed Situation of His Majesty's Ships Ruby, Hector, Berwick and Bristol when Dismasted in the Great Hurricane, 6 October 1780
On return to England Ruby was paid off in the January of 1782 after wartime service. She was then fitted and coppered at Portsmouth for £ 15,326.15.1d between the March and August of that year. She was then recommissioned and sailed to the relief of Gibraltar on the 11th of September in that same year. A small to middling repair followed between the July of 1785 and the March of 1786 at a cost of £15,038.
She was next fitted at Portsmouth for the Channel under Captain Sir Richard Bickerton, in the May of 1793, and sailed in the June of 1794 to join Montague’s squadron.
On the 27th of February, 1795, HMS Ruby, now under Captain Henry Stanhope, sailed with the squadron under Capt John Blankett to take part in the 1st British Occupation of the Cape of Good Hope, Whilst there she was employed on patrols and general duties but saw no action. The surrender of the Dutch squadron at Saldanha Bay on the 17th of August combined with the fact that the Dutch army had just lost the battle of Muizenberg on the 7th, triggered the total collapse of the Dutch forces which controlled the Cape at the time, and having capitulated, this relieved the British ships of some of their duties.
In the March of 1796 Ruby came under the command of Captain George Brisac and sailed to the East Indies where Captain Thomas Bertie took over command, and in the February of 1797 it would then seem that a Captain Jacob Waller had her until she paid off into ordinary at Chatham in the November of 1797.
She was once again repaired and fitted at at Chatham, between the January of 1798 and July of 1799, before being recommissioned under Captain Alan Gardner for the Channel. In the year of 1800 she was under Captain Solomon Ferris, when on the 14th of July she fell in with and took the 22 gun La Fortune in the South Atlantic. In the March of 1801 she was back at Chatham making good her top hamper and in the following month she came under the command of Sir Edward Berry destined for the Baltic. In the April of 1802 she came under Captain Henry Hill and was then fitted once more at Chatham between the following month and the the July of 1803.
Recommissioned under Captain Francis Gardiner she then had a rapid series of Captains until Captain John Draper took command in the July of 1806 under whom she spent some time in the North sea.
On the 25th June, 1807, Tsar Alexander I and Napoleon entered an accord at Tilsit, one of the secret clauses of which entailed the joint seizure of the Portuguese fleet. This led Napoleon to send a large army into Portugal in October of 1807, with a demand that Portugal should detain all British ships and sequester British property. This led to the departure of a Naval Squadron under Sir Sidney Smith to blockade the Tagus estuary. The squadron consisted of the Hibernia (120 guns), the London (98), the Foudroyant (80) and Elizabeth, Conqueror, Marlborough, Monarch, Plantagenet and Bedford (all78s). On arrival Smith arranged for the Portuguese Royal Family, all the serviceable Portuguese fleet and 20 armed merchantmen to leave for Brazil, which they did on the 29th October. Smith and his squadron accompanied them part of the way, leaving Marlborough, London, Monarch and Bedford to escort the fleet to Brazil. On the 30th October a Russian squadron under Admiral Seniavin entered Lisbon, where they became blockaded by the return of Smith's squadron. A few days after the Tsar's hostile declaration became known in London, five ships left Portsmouth to reinforce the blockade. These were the Ganges Defence and Alfred (74s) and Ruby and Agamemnon (64s). On arrival at the Tagus they enabled the Foudroyant, Conqueror and Plantagenet to leave for Cadiz.
The blockade continued for some time, as evidenced by this extract from a letter written by a seaman, John Williams, on board HMS Ruby off Lisbon in the June of1808 :-
"We are at present at anchor at the mouth of the harbour in sight of our Enemies. We are in sight of all of their Shipping with a naked eye there is of them 13 Saile of the Line of Battle Ships & 25 Sloops and Brigs of War all the Gun Boats we do not know the number of them. We are only 10 Saile of the Line and 2 Frigates 2 Sloops and Brigs. There is very heavy Batteries which the French has got the possession of them one of them has mounted as many heavy guns as there is Days in a year. We expect orders to go in Every Day So Dear Brother Remember me in your prayer."
In the December of 1808 her Captain was Robert Hall and once again she was destined for the Baltic.
In the June of 1809 Ruby became the Flagship of Rear Admiral Manley Dixon for a time under Captain Matthew Bradby and then in the July of that year Commander Thomas White as acting captain. Recommissioned in the October of 1810 and fitted at Chatham between the April and June of 1811, Ruby became a depot ship bound for Bermuda, and sailed for North America on the 25th of July in that year.
Fate.
In 1812 she came under the command of Lieutenant Peter Trounce As a receiving ship under the broad pennant of Captain Andrew Evans until 1817. During 1813 and 1814 she was under Lieutenant James Ward and from 1815 Lieutenant James Knight. Ruby was finally broken up in Bermuda during the April of 1821.
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