HMS La Hogue was a 74-gun third-rateship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 October 1811 at Deptford.[1] She was named after the 1692 Battle of La Hogue. "The La Hogue of 1811 [...] sported a green and chocolate lion, its grinning mouth displaying rows of white teeth and a huge red tongue."[2]
During the War of 1812, while under the command of Thomas Bladen Capel, on 16 May 1813 Hogue recaptured and sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia, the packetAnn.[3]Ann had been on her way from Jamaica to Halifax when the American privateer Yorktown had captured her. However, the American privateer Young Teazer again captured Ann and sent her into Portland, Maine.
On 16 August 1813 La Hogue captured the Portuguese ship Flor de Mar. At the time HMS Tenedos was in sight.[Note 1]
La Hogue was driven ashore at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 12 November 1813 during a storm.[5] She was refloated, repaired, and returned to service.
From 7–8 April 1814, ships' boats of the La Hogue, Endymion, Maidstone and Borer attacked Pettipague point.[6][7] In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "8 Apr Boat Service 1814" to all surviving claimants from the action.[8] The raid was commanded by Coote,[9] who was promoted as a result of the successful outcome, as was Lieutenant Pyne of the La Hogue who assisted him.[10]
In September 1814, La Hogue anchored near the Scituate Light station on the coast of Massachusetts with the intent of sending a raiding party into the town. Rebecca and Abigail Bates, the lighthouse keeper's daughters, repulsed the attack by playing a drum and a fife that had been left at the station, simulating the approach of the town militia.
La Hogue was converted into a screw-propelled steamship frigate in 1850. From 1852, she acted as a guard-ship at Devonport under the command of Captain William Ramsay and saw her final service, still under Ramsay, on duties in the Baltic Sea during the Crimean War.[11] On 18 September 1855, she ran aground off Renskär, Sweden and was severely damaged. She was refloated with the assistance of three gunboats after her lower deck guns were taken out.[12]
^Wetherell, W.D. (2002). This American River: Five Centuries of Writing about the Connecticut. UPNE. pp. 56–59. ISBN9781584651116. Letter from Coote to Capel dated 9 April 1814
United Kingdom
Media related to HMS La Hogue (ship, 1811) at Wikimedia Commons
