HMS Calcutta, with James
Caithness on board, reached Spithead on 23
July 1804 after her round-the-world voyage. Before they left Australia Captain Woodriff had received news
that the uneasy peace which had begun with the Treaty of Amiens in March 1801
was finally over and England
was again at war with France .
In September 1804 Calcutta
was refitted by the Admiralty as a 56-gun fourth-rate and fully prepared to
play her part in the struggle against Napoleon and his allies.
The British Fleet at Spithead by John Ward |
With Captain Woodriff in command, HMS Calcutta left St Helena on 3 August
1803, escorting a convoy of several assorted ships to England . There
were three whalers, an East India Company ship from Madras , a Swedish ship and a British brig,
Brothers, which had joined them after being separated from another convoy in a
gale.
HMS Calcutta |
South of the Scilly Isles, Calcutta ’s mast-head lookouts observed unknown sail in the
distance and Woodriff positioned the Calcutta
between the convoy and the approaching ships. These turned out to be French and
Calcutta went
to intercept, having signalled to the convoy to make sail and get away.
The
first ship encountered was the 40-gun frigate Armide and after an engagement Calcutta successfully
drew the enemy southwards, distracting them from the convoy, though the Brothers, an older and slower vessel, was captured.
Le Magnanime by Antoine Roux |
The rest of the French
squadron under Allemand was now in the area and Woodriff brought Calcutta alongside the
74-gun Magnanime. After nearly an hour of fierce battle, during which Calcutta was disabled by
damage to her rigging, Woodriff surrendered rather than sacrifice the lives of
his 350-man crew. His ploy had worked. The convoy had escaped but the price
paid would be heavy: Calcutta
was taken by the French as a prize, and Captain Woodriff and all his people
were forthwith made prisoners-of-war.
Among them was James
Caithness.
Embroidered bee: Napoleon's Coronation Mantle* |
* The Napoleonic icon contains bees, which appealed to Napoleon as symbols of
industry and was an image apparently popular during the Merovingian dynasty of
the sixth to eight centuries A.D.; Napoleon may have favored the resonance
between 'bee' and 'Bonaparte' while also savoring the irony that the image of
the insect seemed to some to be a Bourbon fleur-de-lys turned upside
down.
Acknowledgement:
Tom Sheldon
Acknowledgement:
Tom Sheldon
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