HMS Cato was a Fourth rate, 50-gun ship of the line of the Grampus Class and was built under Navy Board contract by William Cleverley at his shipyard in Gravesend.
The Grampus Class was a pair of 50-gun ships of the line and the other ship, HMS Grampus, was built under Navy Board contract by John Fisher in Liverpool. They were designed by Mr Edward Hunt, Co-Surveyor of the Navy.
Up until about the mid-1750s, the 50 gun fourth rate ship of the line was the smallest of the Royal Navy's ships of the line. From then, they were generally seen as being too small and weak to stand in a line of battle against the larger and more heavily armed French and Spanish ships of the line. They continued to be of use however, in the shallow waters of the North Sea and off North America and they were of particular use against the smaller and less heavily armed ships of the line operated by the Dutch Navy and for that reason, the Royal Navy continued to build and operate small numbers of them into the early 19th century. In the late 1790's however, a new type of warship appeared - the Heavy Frigate. These ships, mounting upwards of 40 guns with 24pdr long guns and heavy carronades both outsailed and outgunned the 50 gun ship of the line and by the end of the French Wars in 1815, they had largely disappeared from front line service in the Royal Navy. Those ships which avoided being broken up or converted into hulks continued in service in supporting roles, as troopships or storeships.
The contract for the construction of HMS Cato was signed on the 17th February 1780 and her first keel section was laid at Gravesend during June of that year. At the time, what had started as a dispute between the British Government and their colonial governments in North America over taxation and the heavy-handed methods of collection had escalated into a full-blown world war between the superpowers of the day, after France and Spain had intervened on the side of the American rebels. By the time the ship was launched into the River Thames on the 29th May 1782, the war was all but over. The British had lost the war ashore in North America, but had successfully defended their lucrative possessions in the West Indies. One of the few places where serious fighting was still ongoing was in India.
Up to her launch, HMS Cato had cost £17,322.12s.2d and immediately after her launch, she was taken upstream to the Royal Dockyard at Woolwich where she was to be fitted with her guns, masts and rigging. On completion, HMS Cato was a ship of 1080 tons. She was 150ft long at the upper gundeck and 123ft 9.5in along the keel. She was 40ft 6in wide across her beams. The ship was armed with 22 x 24pdr long guns on her lower gundeck, 22 x 12pdr long guns on her upper gundeck, 2 x 6pdr long guns on her forecastle with four more on her quarterdeck. In addition to her main guns, HMS Cato was fitted with about a dozen half-pounder anti-personnel swivel guns attached to her forecastle and quarterdeck handrails and bulwarks and in her fighting tops.
On the 8th July 1782, Captain St. Alban Roy was appointed to command the ship. HMS Cato was his first appointment after being Posted or promoted to Captain and he was replaced the following day. This makes it likely that his appointment was purely for the reason of attaining the rank of Captain, because otherwise with the imminent end of the war, he would have been laid off on half pay based on his substantive rank of Lieutenant. He was replaced by Captain James Clark who had orders to commission the ship and oversee the preparations for sea.
Grampus Class PlansOrlop Plan:
Lower Gundeck Plan:
Upper Gundeck Plan:
Forecastle and Quarterdeck Plans:
Inboard Profile and Plans:
Sheer Plan and Lines:
The ship's four Lieutenants, ranked in order of seniority based on the dates on which they had passed their Examinations were appointed by the Admiralty. The most important of these was the First Lieutenant because not only was he the second in command, he also controlled the day to day organisation of the ship and her crew, subject to the Captain's Standing Orders. The Warrant Officers were appointed by the Navy Board including the Standing Officers, those core artificers who would remain with the ship whether she was in commission or not. The Standing Officers in a Fourth Rate ship were:
The Boatswain or Bosun. He was a man who had come up through the ranks of seamen and had a great many years of experience of the sea. Responsible to the First Lieutenant for the operation, repair and maintenance of the ships boats as well as her masts and rigging, he was assisted when the ship was in commission by two Boatswains Mates. The Boatswains Mates were also responsible for administering any floggings ordered by the Captain.
The Gunner. Another man who had come up through the ranks of seamen with a great many years of experience, he was responsible to the First Lieutenant for the repairs, maintenance and operation of the ship's main guns as well as training not only the gun crews, but also any Midshipmen in Ordinary the ship may have aboard. The gunner was assisted when the ship was in commission by a single Gunners Mate and thirteen Quarter Gunners, each of whom was a Petty Officer in charge of four gun crews. Amongst the duties of the Gunners Mate was the administering of Corporal Punishments given to the Midshipmen in Ordinary.
The Carpenter. Answerable to the First Lieutenant for the repair and maintenance of the ships hull, frames and decks. He was a fully qualified shipwright and was assisted when the ship was in commission by two Carpenters Mates and had a dedicated crew of six men.
The Cook. Answerable to the First Lieutenant for the distribution and preparation of the ships victuals, he was also in charge of the ship's complement of servants for the commissioned officers and those warrant officers entitled to them.
The Purser. Answerable to the Captain, he was responsible for the purchase of the ship's stores and supplies and of accounting for them. If the ship was placed in Ordinary, the Purser would be allowed to live ashore within a reasonable distance of the Dockyard.
In addition to the Standing Officers, a whole array of other Warrant Officers were appointed into the ship when she commissioned. These were:
The Sailing Master. Reporting directly to the Captain, he was a qualified ship's Master and could gain employment in the Merchant Service as a commander in his own right when not serving in the Royal Navy. He was responsible for the day to day sailing and navigation of the ship as well as the stowage of stores in the hold to ensure the optimum trim for sailing and manoeuvring. He was also responsible for training Midshipmen in Ordinary in the arts of ship-handling and navigation although this was delegated to the Masters Mates. He was assisted by two Masters Mates and four Quartermasters, each responsible to the Master for steering the ship and each assisted by their own Mate.
The Surgeon. Although not a Doctor as as such, the Surgeon had had to complete a seven-year apprenticeship overseen by the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians. He was responsible to the Captain for the healthcare of the whole ship's Company. He had two Assistant Surgeons to assist him, each of whom was a part-qualified surgeon.
The Armourer. A qualified blacksmith, he was answerable to the Gunner and was responsible for the storage, repair and maintenance not only of the ship's stocks of small-arms and bladed weapons, but also the ship's iron fixtures and fittings. He was assisted by an Armourers Mate.
The Caulker. He was asnswerable to the Carpenter and was responsible for ensuring that the hull and decks remained watertight. He was assisted by a Caulkers Mate.
The Ropemaker. He was answerable to the Boatswain and was responsible for the storage of the ships stocks of cordage and could manufacture new cordage as and where necessary.
The Sailmaker. He was answerable to the Boatswain and was responsible for the maintenance and repairs of the ships sails as well as the storage of spare sails and flags.
The Chaplain. An ordained Church of England priest, he was responsible to the Captain for the spiritual wellbeing of the ships Company. In action, he assisted the Surgeon's Crew with the care of wounded men. In the absence of a Chaplain, the Captain would carry out his religious duties.
The Schoolmaster. He was reponsible to the First Lieutenant for teaching the Midshipmen in Ordinary the mathematics and theory of navigation and with the agreement of the Captain, would also teach the rest of the ship's boys the basic '3Rs'.
The Clerk. He answered to the Purser and was responsible for keeping the many ledgers, reports and books the Captain was required to periodically submit to the Admiralty and the Navy Board.
A ship like HMS Cato would have ten Midshipmen appointed plus Midshipmen-in-Ordinary, depending on the Captain. Since the Midshipmen-in-Ordinary were filling positions on the ship's books as Captains Servants and a ship with a crew of 350 would entitle the Captain to have 12 servants, or four per hundred of her Company, their numbers depended on the number of actual servants the Captain required.
The rest of the ship's crew would consist of Petty Officers, such as Captains of parts of the ship, gun captains etc, plus Able and Ordinary Seamen, Landsmen and Boys, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class depending on their levels of experience at sea. The ship's contingent of Marines would consist of two Lieutenants of Marines ranked in order of seniority like the Sea Officers, assisted by two Sergeants, two Corporals and a Drummer with 43 Privates and they would come aboard as a pre-existing unit.
On the 10th August 1782, HMS Cato was declared complete and in all respects ready for sea at Woolwich.
Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, was the son of a clergyman. Born on the 1st February 1714, he had begun his career at sea in the Merchant Service. By 1748, he was a Captain in the Royal Navy and during the Seven Years War (1756 - 1763) his ship, along with another, had captured the Manila Galleon, a regular shipment of Spanish silver plate from Manila to Acapulco. Captain Parker's share of the prize money for this capture alone was £600,000 (or about £106M in todays money), making he and his family very rich indeed. In fact, that one capture was the source of much of the family's wealth into the present day. A Whig, he had made his way to the rank of Vice-Admiral in the position of Commander in Chief in the North Sea by 1781. In August of 1781, he and the ships and men under his command had fought a bloody but inconclusive action against the Dutch in the Battle of Dogger Bank. Vice-Admiral Hyde Parker had blamed the Tory-supporting First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Sandwich, for the inconclusive outcome of the Battle of Dogger Bank, claiming that if he had had more and better ships, the result would have been different. Following the Battle, he had resigned his command and refused to take another appointment. In early April 1782, the Tory Government of Lord North had fallen and had been replaced by a weak, Whig-led coalition led by the Marquess of Rockingham. The new Government had offered him the post of Commander in Chief in the East Indies, an offer he accepted and he was asked to raise his command flag in another 50-gun ship, the Sheerness-built HMS Bristol. In July of 1782, his elder brother had died without an heir, so the Vice-Admiral had inherited the family Baronetcy, becoming the 5th Baronet. The need to sort out his affairs meant that his appointment was delayed nd HMS Bristol was assigned elsewhere.
Finally, on the 13th October 1782, HMS Cato departed the UK wearing Vice-Admiral Parker's command flag. Fourteen days later, the ship was reported at Madeira, where she had stopped to replenish her supplies of fresh fruit, vegetables and water. From Madeira, she sailed to Rio de Janiero, where she made another stop to replenish her supplies. The ship left Rio de Janiero on the 12th December and was never heard from again.
Despite searches conducted by ships of the Royal Navy and others, no trace of HMS Cato was found. The Admiralty declared the ship lost, assuming that she had foundered somewhere between Rio de Janeiro and Madras.
In 1791, the Admiralty received a report from a Captain Burn, a merchant captain in the service of the Nabob of Arcot. He reported that while his ship was docked in the Arabian port of Mecca, he had seen a Malay vessel rigged out with stores and items which had clearly come from a British warship called 'Cato'. On being asked about where he had got these items from, the Malay captain stated that they had come from a large ship which had been wrecked on the Malabar coast in modern-day south-west India. The Malay captain also reported the the survivors of the wreck had been ordered to be put to the sword by the ruler in the area.