HMS Atalanta was an unrated, 6pdr-armed, 16-gun, Quarterdeck-built ship-rigged Sloop of War of the Swan Class, built at the Sheerness Royal Dockyard.
The Swan Class was a group of 25 ship-rigged Sloops of War designed by John Williams, Co-Surveyor of the Navy, of which 11 were built in Kent shipyards. HMS Atalanta was one of three ships of the class to be built at Sheerness, the others being HMS Fly and HMS Fairy. The other Kent-built ships of the class were HMS Pegasus, HMS Kingfisher and HMS Nymph, built at the Chatham Royal Dockyard, HMS Dispatch built at the Deptford Royal Dockyard, HMS Fortune built at the Woolwich Royal Dockyard and HMS Hound, built under Navy Board contract by Barnards at Deptford Green.
The Swan Class were noted for the lavish scale of their decorations and were the last Sloops of War built for the Royal Navy with decorations on such a scale. Orders were made by the Admiralty that decorations on the Royal Navy's smaller vessels be far less lavish and future vessels were almost puritan by comparison.
Quarterdeck-built means that the ships had their gundecks enclosed by the quarterdeck aft, a grated-over boat tier between the fore and main masts with the forecastle forward. The entire Ship's Company lived on the Berth Deck below the Gundeck with the exception of the Commander, whose quarters were beneath the Quarterdeck at the after end of the Gundeck.
The term 'Sloop of War' was a term used to describe an ocean-going warship which carried less than the 20 guns required for the vessel to be rated under the Royal Navy's rating system. 'Ship-rigged' meant that she had three masts, all carrying square sails. Sloops of War tended to have a 'Master and Commander', abbreviated to 'Commander', appointed in command rather than an officer with the rank of Captain. At the time, the rank of 'Commander' did not exist as it does today. It was a position rather than a formal rank and the officer commanding a Sloop of War had a substantive rank of Lieutenant and was appointed into the ship as her Master and Commander. Appointments as Master and Commander did not come automatically. A Lieutenant had to have the right connections, or make the right connections by impressing a senior officer with his skill, bravery and initiative in order to receive such an appointment. After all, a Station or Fleet commander giving a relatively junior officer such an appointment for the first time wasn't just entrusting a Royal Navy warship and her crew to the new Commander, he was also placing his own reputation at risk and if the new Commander proved to be unsuccessful for any reason, the failure would reflect badly on the senior officer's own reputation. An officer in the post of Master and Commander would be paid substantially more than a Lieutenant's wages and would also receive the lions share of any prize or head money earned by the vessel and her crew. The appointment originally combined the positions of Commanding Officer and Sailing Master. If a war ended and a Sloop of War's commanding officer was laid off, he would receive half-pay based on his substantive rank of Lieutenant. If he turned out to be successful or was well-connected, he would usually be promoted to Captain or 'Posted' either before his appointment ended, or would be promoted at the end of it and appointed as a Captain in a rated vessel. Sloops of War therefore tended to be commanded by ambitious, well-connected young men anxious to prove themselves.
HMS Atalanta was ordered by the Navy Board from the Sheerness Royal Dockyard on the 1st December 1773, at a time when the nation was more or less at peace. Her first keel section was laid at Sheerness on the 9th April 1774 and her construction was to be overseen by Mr George White, Master Shipwright in the Sheerness Royal Dockyard. HMS Atalanta was launched into the Swale on the 12th August 1775, two days after Mr Thomas Underwood had been appointed into the ship as her Master and Commander with orders to oversee her fitting out, manning, storing and otherwise getting her ready for sea.
Mr Underwood had, along with the bulk of his brother officers, entered the Royal Navy as a child and had passed his Examination for Lieutenant on the 17th November 1763. He received his first command appointmnt on the 10th February 1772 when he was appointed Master and Commander in the 6pdr-armed, 14-gun Sloop of War HMS Swallow by Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Harland, Commander in Chief in the Leeward Islands.
Because the nation was at peace, there were no Press Gangs operating in the port towns, so Mr Underwood would have had to rely on volunteers to make up his complement of seamen. To this end, he would have had handbills displayed in taverns and inns to try to tempt men to sign up aboard the ship at Sheerness. His two Lieutenants were appointed into the ship by the Admiralty and ranked according to seniority based on the dates they had passed their Examinations, First Lieutenant and Second Lieutenant. Each of these men was in effect, a commander in waiting, looking to gain the experience, make the connections and attracting the attention of more senior officers in order to be considered for a command of their own. The First Lieutenant in particular would be anxious to make a success of his appointment. The First Lieutenant wasn't just the second-in-command, he was the Commander's right hand man and was responsible for the day to day organisation of the ship and her crew.
HMS Atalanta's senior Warrant Officers were appointed into the ship by the Navy Board. This body of men included the Standing Officers, those men who would remain with the ship whether or not she was in commission. The Standing Officers in a Sloop of War like HMS Atalanta were:
The Boatswain - He was an experienced seaman who had worked his way up through the ranks of seamen. He was in charge of the maintenance, operation and repair of the vessel's boats as well as the masts and rigging and reported to the First Lieutenant. He was assisted when the vessel was in commission by a single Boatswain's Mate. Amongst the duties of HMS Atalanta's sole Boatswains Mate was the administering of any floggings ordered by the Commander.
The Carpenter - Usually appointed from amongst the men who had built the ship, he was a fully qualified shipwright and was responsible for the maintenance and repair of the hull, frames and decks. He answered to the First Lieutenant and was assisted by a single Carpenters Mate when HMS Atalanta was in commission.
The Gunner - Another man who had worked his way up through the ranks of seamen, he was in charge of the operation, maintenance and repairs of the vessel's main guns, the training of the gun crews, the distribution in action of gunpowder and shot and training any Midshipmen-in-Ordinary in the arts of gunnery. He was assisted by a single Gunners Mate when the vessel was in commission and reported to the First Lieutenant.
The Purser - He answered to the Commander and was responsible for the purchase and distribution of all HMS Atalanta's stores and supplies.
The Cook - His role is self-explanatory, but in addition to being responsible to the First Lieutenant for the preparation and distribution of the vessel's stocks of victuals, he was also in charge of the ship's complement of servants for the Commander, the commissioned officers and those warrant officers entitled to them.
The other senior warrant officers, only appointed into HMS Atalanta when she was in commission were:
The Sailing Master - He was in charge of the day to day sailing and navigation of the vessel as well as the stowage of stores in the hold to ensure the optimum trim for manoeuvring and sailing and reported directly to the Commander. The Sailing Master was a qualified ship's Master in his own right and when not employed by the Royal Navy, would be able to find work in the Merchant service as a commander. In addition to those duties, the Sailing Master was also responsible for training and assessing any Midshipmen in Ordinary in the arts of sailing, seamanship and navigation, though this was usually delegated to the Masters Mate. In a Sloop of War like HMS Atalanta, the Sailing Master was assisted by a single Masters Mate, who himself was qualified to serve in the Merchant Service as a ship's Mate. The Masters Mates were the lowest-ranking officers in the ship eligible to be appointed in temporary command of any prizes which might be taken. The Masters Mate was also eligible to be appointed Acting Lieutenant should a vacancy arise in the ship and none of the Midshipmen were experienced enough to fill it. The vessel's steering was controlled by a single Quartermaster.
The Surgeon - He answered to the Commander and was responsible for the healthcare of the whole crew from the Commander downwards. Although not a Doctor, a Surgeon had to complete a seven-year apprenticeship overseen by the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons before he would be able to practice his trade unsupervised. He was assisted by a single Assistant Surgeon, who himself was a part-qualified Surgeon.
The following, lesser Warrant Officers were appointed by the Commander on the recommendation of the First Lieutenant having first applied for the posts and presented their credentials.
The Armourer - Answerable to the Gunner, he was responsible for the maintenance and repair of the vessels stocks of small arms and bladed weapons. A qualified Blacksmith, he could also manufacture new bladed weapons and fabricate metal parts of the vessel as and where required.
The Caulker - Answerable to the Carpenter, he was responsible for ensuring that the hull and decks remained watertight.
The Sailmaker - Answerable to the Boatswain, he was responsible for the maintenance and repair of the vessels sails as well as the storage of spare sails and the vessel's stock of flags.
The Ropemaker. Answerable to the Boatswain and responsible for the storage and manufacture when needed of new cordage.
The Master at Arms. Answerable to the First Lieutenant, he was in effect, the vessel's policeman and was responsible for the day-to-day enforcement of discipline in the vessel and was assisted by a single Ship's Corporal (not related to the military rank of the same name).
Sloops of War were required to embark a small contingent of Marines and HMS Atalanta was no exception. Her complement of Marines would have consisted of a Sergeant in command, assisted by a Corporal, with 13 Marine Privates. These men came aboard as a pre-existing unit. The Marines lived in a screened off part of the Berth Deck known as the Marine Barracks and the Non-Commissioned Officers commanding the detachment had the same status in the ship as the Petty Officers.
A Sloop of War like HMS Atalanta had two Midshipmen. These young men were in effect, commanders in training and were appointed into the vessel by the local commander-in-chief when the vessel first commissioned, or when a vacancy arose. Their role was to assist the Lieutenants in their day to day duties and the most senior of them was in charge of the ship's signals.
In addition to the appointed Midshipmen, HMS Atalanta may also have carried Midshipmen-in-Ordinary. These young men, in their early teens or younger, were also known as Quarterdeck Boys or "Gentleman Volunteers". They were on the vessels books as Commander's servants and were paid at the same rate as an Able Seaman. They were appointed by the Commander himself and were Officers in training. They were usually relatives of the Commander, or were related to people to Commander either owed a favour to or was doing a favour for. They wore the uniform and performed the duties of a Midshipman and were accomodated in the Midshipmen's berth. The commander of a warship was entitled to have four servants per rounded hundred of her Company, so HMS Atalanta may have carried up to four, depending on how many servants the Commander actually required.
The rest of the HMS Atalanta's Company was made up of Petty Officers in charge of specific parts of the vessel, Able Seamen able to perform any tasks asked of them without supervision, Ordinary Seamen with some experience of the sea and Landsmen, those with no experience whatsoever. Landsmen were the unskilled labourers on any vessel and were regarded by the rest of the Company as being the lowest form of life until they had proved themselves. There were also children amongst the ship's Company and they were employed as servants for the Commissioned Officers and those Warrant Officers entitled to have servants, Powder Monkeys running gunpowder cartridges from the Magazine to the guns when she was in action and as Nippers in the tight, confined space of the Cable Tier when the vessel weighed anchor.
Swan Class PlansFraming Plan:
Berth Deck (top) and Hold Platform (bottom) Plans:
Forecastle and Quarterdeck (top) and Gundeck (Bottom) Plans:
Sheer Plan, Lines and details of the decorations:
Broadside view of a model of HMS Atalanta's sister-ship HMS Fly, also built at Sheerness:
Port Bow and Starboard Quarter view of a model of HMS Atalanta's sister-ship HMS Pegasus, built at the Chatham Royal Dockyard:
This beautiful model of HMS Atalanta shows a wealth of detail. Note the figurehead, the swivel guns and deck fittings. These photos are on the website of the Nautical Research Guild and the model was built by a user on that website, Tlevine:
Port side view, showing the planked hull and decorations
Starboard side view showing the frames:
On completion, HMS Atalanta was a ship of 300 tons. She was 96ft 7in in length along the gundeck and 78ft 10in along the keel. She was 26ft 9in wide across her beams, drew 7ft 1in of water at her bows and 10ft 8in at the rudder. The ship was armed with 16 x 6pdr long guns on her gundeck with a dozen half-pounder anti-personnel swivel guns attached to her bulwarks and handrails.
The Seven Years War (1756 - 1763) had bankrupted the Government of France and the British Government's finances weren't in much better shape. In order to pay off the mountain of debt run up during the war, the British Government had imposed taxes on their American colonies over which the colonists and their local colonial governments had no say. Political debate had grown into protests and civil disobedience and riots. In response to this, the British had employed draconian and heavy-handed methods to ensure compliance with the new taxes and by the time HMS Atalanta was commissioned, this had escalated into an open, armed rebellion.
On the 10th July 1776, while the ship was off Barbados, Commander Underwood died, more than likely of disease, the main cause of death for Europeans in the area either in peace or during war. His replacement as Master and Commander in HMS Atalanta was Mr Thomas Lloyd, appointed into the ship by Rear-Admiral Clark Gayton, Commander-in-Chief at Jamaica. Mr Lloyd had passed his Examination for Lieutenant in 1763 and received his first appointment at that rank on 17th September 1764. HMS Atalanta was his first command appointment. Mr Lloyd was to remain in command until the 24th July 1778, when he was Posted and appointed Captain in the Post-Ship HMS Hydra of 24 guns. His replacement in HMS Atalanta was Mr Thomas Marshall. Mr Marshall had passed his Examination for Lieutenant on the 11th May 1760 and HMS Atalanta was his first appointment as Master and Commander.
On 30th November 1778, the following announcement was published in the London Gazette:
"Notice is hereby given to the officers, seamen and others of His Majesty's Sloop Atalanta who were present at the taking of the French ship La Jonquille that they will be paid their respective shares of the said prize at the French Horn Tavern, Crutched Friars on Thursday 23rd December next; and the shares then remaining will be recalled at Mr Blackburn's in Scotts Yard, the first Thursday in every month for three years to come.
John Blackburn
Peter Symons jr."On the 9th November 1779, another Notice was published in the London Gazette, as follows:
Portsmouth
November 7 1779
Notice is hereby given to the officers and Company of His Majesty's Sloop Atalanta, Thomas Marshall Esq. Commander, who were actually on board on the 6th day of February last, at the taking of the L'Epervier, French privateer, that they will be paid their respective shares of the said prize and head money on board the Atalanta at Spithead on Thursday the 18th of November instant; and the shares not then demanded will be recalled at Portsmouth, the first Thursday in every month for three years to come.
James Primrose Maxwell
Nathaniel Gilman
Agents.On the 13th November 1780 while the ship was off Newfoundland, Commander Marshall was ordered to swap ships with Commander Sampson Edwards of the Fireship HMS Volcano of 8 guns.
On the 27th May 1781, HMS Atalanta was in company with the 6pdr-armed, 14-gun Brig Rigged Sloop of War HMS Trepassey in mid-Atlantic. That vessel had formerly been the American privateer Wild Cat before she was captured, renamed and taken into the Royal Navy. On closing the range, the two British vessels realised that their target was a very large vessel and the two British sloops headed away, but found themselves chased in turn.
On the 28th at about noon, the American ship caught up with the two British Sloops of War and turned out to be the Continental 12pdr-armed Frigate Alliance of 36 guns under Captain John Barry of the Continental Navy, the forerunner of todays United States Navy. With the wind having died away to a dead calm, the two British Sloops of War had no chance of escape from the American's overwhelming firepower, so running out the sweeps (large oars), the British decided to make a fight of it. HMS Trepassey under Commander James Smyth attempted to take up a position on the American's quarter but overshot and ended up coming face to face with the Alliance's overwhelming broadside. Commander Edwards attempted to come to the rescue of the smaller Brig, but by the time HMS Atalanta moved between the American Frigate and HMS Trepassey, the Brig had been badly damaged and was unable to get away. With Commander Smyth of HMS Trepassey killed and the American captain badly wounded by a grapeshot hit to the shoulder, the Alliance was able to use her superior firepower and at about 15:30, HMS Trepassey struck her colours in surrender. Aboard HMS Atalanta, Lieutenant Samuel Arden was badly wounded, but as soon as his damaged arm had been amputated, returned to his station. Eventually, Commander Edwards of HMS Atalanta was also forced to order his colours to be struck in surrender. In addition to Lieutenant Arden, HMS Atalanta suffered casualties of 18 wounded and six dead. HMS Trepassey also suffered six dead with eleven wounded. The American ship had six dead with 26 wounded.
After the Action, Captain Barry put all the British wounded aboard HMS Trepassey and sent her into British-held Halifax, Nova Scotia under a Cartel flag, with her Sailing Master, Mr Phillip Windsor appointed in command. As part of the Cartel conditions, HMS Trepassey was to return to Boston after dropping off the wounded.
On 4th July 1781, Vice-Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot, Commander-in-Chief in North America, wrote to Mr Stephens, Secretary to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty from his flagship, HMS Bedford (74), moored off Sandy Hook.
I had the Honor to mention, in my Letter of this Date, my Intention of reporting some particular Circumstances respecting the Capture of the Atalanta; they are communicated, in the inclosed Paper.
The Atalanta, with a Gallantry that does her Captain the highest Honor, maintained the Action some Time after the Trepassey struck, until she was a Wreck, in which State she was carried to Halifax. The Behavior of Lieutenant Samuel Arden, of the Atalanta was brilliant beyond Expression: He lost his Right Arm in the Fight, and the Instant it was drest resumed his Station on Deck, where he
remained until she struck, notwithstanding his Weakness and Loss of Blood.
I doubt not these Matters will be thought entitled to their Lordships Consideration.
Report of Mr. Philip Windsor,
late Master of His Majesty's Sloop the Trepassey,
in Halifax Harbour,
June 11, 1781, viz:
ON Sunday the 27th of May, 1781, being on a Cruize with the Atalanta Sloop, by Order from the Commanding Officer at St. John's, Newfoundland, in Lat. 41 . Long. 61 . W. saw a Sail at Three P. M, S. E. distant Four Leagues: We bore up, and came within One League; finding her a Large Ship, supposed her a Two-Decker , And Night coming on we hauled our Wind, and sailed in Sight of her all Night. About Twelve at Noon the next Day ; it being almost calm, and the strange Ship about Half a Mile to Leeward; she hoisted
Rebel Colours, and gave the Atalanta and us a Broadside, we being then very nigh to each other.
We then bore up close alongside of her, the Atalanta on the Starboard, and the Trepassey on the Larboard Quarter, and began to engage. About an Hour after the Action began, Captain Smith of the Trepassey, was killed ; upon which I sent to Lieutenant King to acquaint him thereof, in order to his resuming the Command; and engaged the Enemy in the same Position for Two Hours and a Half longer, and at last struck the Colours, in Obedience to the Orders he sent me by Mr Samuel Pitts, a Midshipman of the Ship.
We lost Five Seamen killed and Ten wounded in the Action, Which ended at Half past Three P. M. The Atalanta continued to engage, some Time, and then struck also.
The Rebel Frigate proved to be the Alliance. Captain Edwards of the Atalanta, and his Lieutenant, and also Lieutenant King of the Trepassey, are carried away as Prisoners, and myself was left in Charge of the Two Ships Companies put on Board of the Trepassey by Mr. Barry, Captain of the Alliance, who for that Purpose disabled and turned the Trepassey into a Cartel Brig ; and have brought her in here, with Directions to send the Cartel to Boston; as Rebel Property.
Being thus left in Charge of these People , I think it my Duty to acquaint you hereof, as Commanding Officer, requesting to be disposed of in such Manner as you shall direct; and being ready to answer to any Court-Martial for my Share and Proportion in the Defence and Loss of His Majesty's said Sloop.
Signed,
Philip Windsor,
Master of the Trepassey.
N. B. The Atalanta Sloop had 16 Guns and 125 Men
the Trepassey Sloop 14 Guns and 80 Men. The two British vessels had not been easily taken by the American Frigate. The Alliance had been badly damaged and after spending two days making sufficient repairs to get under way, the American Frigate, said to be the finest in the Continental Navy, limped into Boston where she spent the next six months being repaired and refitted. After the war ended in 1784, the Continental Army and Continental Navy were both disbanded and the Alliance was sold to John Coburn who had her converted into an East Indiaman. After service as a merchant ship, she was declared unseaworthy in 1789 and was stripped of her copper and iron. The hulk was run ashore on Petty's Island in modern-day New Jersey, opposite the port of Philadelphia, where she remained rotting away until the wreck was finally destroyed by dredging in 1901.
HMS Atalanta (left) and HMS Trepassey (right) engage the Alliance. In this painting, HMS Atalanta's mizzen mast has been shot away.
The now ex-HMS Atalanta was taken into the Continental Navy under her British name, but didn't last long under American colours. On the 7th June 1781, she was recaptured off Cape Cod by the 44-gun two-decker HMS Assurance and the Post Ship HMS Amphitrite (24).
On the 28th June 1781, HMS Atalanta was recommissioned into the Royal Navy with Mr Piercy Brett appointed as Master and Commander by Vice-Admiral Arbuthnot. Mr Brett had passed his Examination for Lieutenant on the 10th April 1778 and HMS Atalanta was his first command appointment.
Mr Brett's term in command of HMS Atalanta was uneventful but outside their little world, momentous events were unfurling. Throughout most of 1781, a British army under General Lord Cornwallis was successfully campaigning down the eastern seaboard of North America, pushing the Continental Army under George Washington and their French allies south towards Florida. Realising that their supply lines from the British strongholds in New York and Philadelphia were becoming overstretched, the Commander in Chief of the British Army in North America, General Sir Henry Clinton ordered Lord Cornwallis to enter the town of Yorktown in order to establish a deep water port to enable his army to be supplied by sea. Once in Yorktown, Cornwallis had become beseiged by a French and American army and blockaded from the sea by a French fleet under the Compte de Grasse. A British fleet under Vice Admiral Graves had attempted to force the entrance to Chesapeake Bay in the battle of the same name and had been driven off. Cornwallis had been forced to surrender, along with the bulk of the army in North America, effectively ending the war ashore.
On the 13th March 1783, Commander Brett was replaced in command of HMS Atalanta by Mr Thomas Foley. Mr Foley had first passed his examination for Lieutenant on the 25th May 1778 and was first appointed Master and Commander in the 20-gun hired armed tender Britannia on the 1st December 1782.
The American War of Independence was ended by the 1783 Treaty of Paris, signed on the 3rd September 1783, to be effective from the 12th May 1784.
On the 18th February 1785, HMS Atalanta paid off at the Deptford Royal Dockyard.
In June of 1787, HMS Atalanta entered the Royal Dockyard at Deptford to begin a Great Repair. A Great Repair, as the name suggests, was a major piece of work. First of all, a sheer hulk was brought alongside and was used to remove the masts and guns. Once that was complete, the ship went into a dry dock. The copper and then the hull and deck planking was removed. The internal planking was also removed and the frame was inspected by the Dockyard's shipwrights. Any rotten or worn frame members were removed and replaced with new. Once that process was complete, the hull and deck planking was replaced, the hull was re-coppered and the ship re-floated. The work took until January of 1788 and cost £7,042.
On the 1st December 1787, Mr George Countess was appointed Master and Commander in HMS Atalanta with orders to oversee the ship being fitted for sea and recruit a new crew for service in the East Indies.
In February of 1786, General Lord Cornwallis had been appointed as Governor-General in India. The British Honourable East India Company had previously been involved in two wars against the Kingdom of Mysore in Southern India. India itself did not yet exist as the nation we know today, it was instead a loose empire, ruled by the Muslim Mughal Emperors based in Delhi. The rulers of the various kingdoms and principalities which made up the empire were allowed to do their own thing as long as they swore ultimate loyalty to the Mughal Emperor. At the time, the British were gaining influence and control in India, by playing the kingdoms off against each other, offering military protection, assistance and diplomacy in exchange for exclusive trading rights. The French were also playing the same game and the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, was allied to and supported by the French. Despite the French Revolution in 1789 and the chaos that unleashed in Europe, business between Tipu Sultan and his French allies had continued as usual. The Second Mysore War, fought at the same time as the American War of Independence between France and Great Britain and their respective Indian allies between 1780 and 1784, had been ended by the Treaty of Mangalore, but neither side was particularly happy with it. Tipu Sultan in particular had an almost irrational hatred of the British and declared that despite the Treaty, he would use every opportunity he found to cause trouble for the British and their Indian allies.
At the end of December 1788, Captain the Honourable Sir William Cornwallis, Lord Cornwallis' younger brother and himself an experienced and successful naval commander, had been appointed as Commodore of a small squadron and Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy's East Indies Station, to be based in Bombay. Sir William Cornwallis was a popular commander and was known amongst the men of the Royal Navy as 'Billy Blue'. Commodore Cornwallis flew his command Broad Pennant in the 64-gun Third Rate ship of the line HMS Crown and had been ordered to India in company with the Frigates HMS Minerva (18pdr, 38) under Captain Robert Manners Sutton, HMS Perseverance (18pdr, 36 guns) under Captain Isaac Smith, HMS Perseverance's sister-ship HMS Phoenix under Captain Richard Strachan, with the Sloops of War HMS Atalanta and her sister-ship HMS Swan.
On the 11th September 1788, Mr Maurice Delgarno took command of HMS Atalanta and the ship finally sailed for India on the 11th February 1789. The journey to India would have been an odyssey in itself and would have taken at least four months in ideal sailing conditions. On departing Portsmouth, HMS Atalanta sailed down the English Channel and turned south to sail across the Bay of Biscay, past Gibraltar and would have stopped for water and supplies in the Azores. Leaving there, she would have followed the west coast of Africa and stopped again at the Dutch colony at Cape Town before heading out across the Indian Ocean bound for the Honourable East India Company's base in Bombay.
Tipu Sultan declared war on the East India Company in December of 1789 and the Third Anglo-Mysore War began. The French at the time, maintained a pair of Frigates, Cybele (12pdr, 40 guns) and Resolue (12pdr, 36 guns) under Commodore Armand de Saint Felix at Mahe. Once the war had begun the French, despite the Revolution, kept Tipu Sultan's army supplied through the port of Mangalore, located along the coast from the French base at Mahe. Commodore Cornwallis had been ordered to put a stop to this trade and on the 9th November of 1791, moved his command broad pennant to HMS Minerva and also took personal command of the ship. Captain Sutton of HMS Minerva took command of HMS Crown.
Commodore Cornwallis ordered that his three frigates station themselves off the Mysorean port of Tellicherry, roughly halfway between Mahe and Mangalore, with the intention of stopping and searching any French shipping going into Mangalore. On learning about Cornwallis' intentions, Commodore Saint-Felix wrote to the British Commodore informing him that France was neutral, that their ships would not submit to British demands that they stop and be searched and that any attempts by the British to do so by force would be met in kind. Cornwallis replied that he and his ships would enforce the blockade of Mangalore come what may.
On the 18th November 1791, the French sent a small convoy of two cargo ships escorted by the Resolue from Mahe bound to Mangalore. Seeing the French vessels coming towards Tellicherry, Commodore Cornwallis sent HMS Perseverence to stop the cargo ships and HMS Phoenix to prevent the Resolue from interfering. HMS Phoenix ran alongside the French Frigate and Captain Strachan informed the Frenchman of his intentions. The Resolue responded by opening fire on HMS Phoenix from a range of about 30 feet, to which the British Frigate responded in kind. There then followed a fierce firefight which went on for about 20 minutes, after which the Resolue struck her colours in surrender. In what is now known as the Battle of Tellicherry, the French Frigate had been damaged in her hull, masts and rigging and had suffered casualties of 25 dead and 40 wounded. HMS Phoenix lost six dead with 11 wounded. The cargo ships were then duly searched by men from HMS Atalanta and with no war materiel being found, were sent on their way. The captain of the Resolue had other ideas. He insisted that the rules of war be followed and that as far as he was concerned, his ship was now a British prize. Commodore Cornwallis was having none of this and ordered that the Resolue be towed to Mahe and left there. Commodore St. Felix's report reached France later in 1792, but the new revolutionary Government had enough on it's plate trying to control the growing anarchy in France which had followed the Revolution and didn't take any action.
Shortly after the battle, Commodore St. Felix arrived at Mahe in the Cybele and heated correspondence was then exchanged with Commodore Cornwallis, with more threats of French resistance should the British continue with the blockade of Mangalore. The French left Mahe for a cruise and were followed by HMS Minerva and HMS Phoenix leaving HMS Perseverence to continue the blockade. The British stopped and searched a number of French vessels bound for Mangalore without further interference from the French. The four ships cruised together for some days until Commodore St Felix sent the Resolue away on an errand, at which point Commodore Cornwallis sent HMS Phoenix away and continued to follow the Cybele in HMS Minerva.
In February 1792, British and allied Indian forces were closing on Seringatapam, the capital city of the Kingdom of Mysore and were preparing to lay seige to the city. Tipu Sultan, realising that he was about to lose the war he had started and probably lose his kingdom as well, opened peace negotiations. These resulted in the Treaty of Seringatapam, signed on the 18th March 1792 which ended the war.
A map showing the locations of Mahe, Mangalore and the Kingdom of Mysore:
In February of 1793, France declared war on Great Britain and the following March, HMS Atalanta returned to Portsmouth and was laid up.
On the 13th March 1797, HMS Atalanta was put up for sale, but the decision was reversed and it was decided to recommission her. In the meantime, a French Corvette of 16 guns called L'Atalante had been captured and put into Royal Naval service under her French name. HMS Atalanta was renamed to HMS Helena and was commissioned into the Channel Fleet. The ship spent the rest of the French Revolutionary War escorting convoys and conducting patrols in the English Channel.
The French Revolutionary War was ended in March of 1802 by the Treaty of Amiens and in August of that year, the now-HMS Helena was sold at Portsmouth.
