French Revolutionary Wars
HMS Monmouth was commissioned in September 1796 under the command of the Captain William Carnegie, Earl of Northesk.[4] She was initially assigned to serve in the North Sea, and in May 1797 was one of the ships involved in the Nore mutiny. The crew took her first lieutenant, Charles Bullen, prisoner and threatened to execute him. Northesk intervened and Bullen was able to carry messages from the crew that are said to have helped end the mutiny.[5] After the mutiny Northesk resigned his commission. Order was restored in a matter of weeks, and Monmouth was placed under Commander James Walker, in an acting captaincy. Walker had been planning to attack the mutinous ships at anchor with a squadron of gunboats only a few weeks previously.[6]
Walker commanded Monmouth at the Battle of Camperdown in October 1797. Admiral Adam Duncan led the fleet to meet the Dutch.
Before the battle Walker addressed his crew, saying: "'Now, my lads, you see your enemy before you. I shall lay you close on board, and thus give you an opportunity of washing the stain off your characters with the blood of your foes. Go to your quarters, and do your duty.'[7]"
Monmouth engaged in heavy combat with the Dutch ships Delft and Alkmaar, capturing both, although Delft sank on the way back.[7][8] In the battle Monmouth had five men killed and 22 wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Camperdown" to all surviving claimants from the action.
In March 1798, Robert Deans became captain. Monmouth was among the seven vessels of Lord Duncan's fleet that shared in the prize money for the privateer Jupiter, captured on 27 April.[10]
In January 1799 Vice-Admiral Archibald Dickson raised his flag in her, but she then went into Sheerness in March for repairs. Next month, Captain George Hart, who retained the command until 1805, replaced Deans. Then Monmouth was among the vessels sharing in the prize money from sundry Dutch doggers, schuyts, and fishing vessels, taken in April and May.[11] Monarch was also part of a squadron that in May captured Roose (12 May), Genet, Polly, American, Forsigtigheid, and Bergen (all 14 May), Des Finch (21 May), and Vrow Dorothea (30 May).[12]
That summer, Monmouth took part in the Helder expedition, a joint Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland under the command of Vice-Admiral Andrew Mitchell.[4] At the Neiuw Diep the British captured seven warships and 13 Indiamen and transports. Then Mitchell obtained the surrender of a squadron of the navy of the Batavian Republic in the Vlieter Incident.[14] The Dutch surrendered twelve vessels ranging down in size from the 74-gun Washington to the 16-gun brig Galathea.[15] Next, Monmouth was among the vessels sharing in the capture on 17 August of Adelarde.[17] On 15 September Monmouth, several other British vessels and two Russian, arrived at Sheerness as escort to five Dutch ships of the line, three frigates and one sloop.[18]
Monmouth sailed for the Mediterranean in June 1801. She therefore came to share in the proceeds of the capture of Almas di Purgatoria off Alexandria on 28 July.[19] Because Monmouth served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 8 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorised in 1850 for all surviving claimants.
