HMS Alarm was a 32-gun fifth rate Niger-class

Niger class frigate

The Niger-class frigates were 32-gun sailing frigates of the fifth rate produced for the Royal Navy. They were designed in 1757 by Sir Thomas Slade, and were an improvement on his 1756 design for the 32-gun s....

 frigate

Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, and was the first Royal Navy ship to bear this name. Copper-sheathed

Copper sheathing

Copper sheathing was the practice of protecting the under-water hull of a ship or boat through the use of copper plates affixed to the outside of the hull. It was pioneered and developed by the Royal Navy during the 18th century.-Development:...

 in 1761, she was the first ship in the Royal Navy to have a fully copper-sheathed hull.

Experiments with copper sheathing

Alarm initially saw deployment in the West Indies, where she experimentally had her hull sheathed in a thin layer of copper. Firstly it was intended to reduce the considerable damage caused by the teredo woodworm

Woodworm

A woodworm is not a specific species. It is the larval stage of certain woodboring beetles including:*Ambrosia beetles *Bark borer beetle / Waney edge borer *Common furniture beetle...

, and secondly the well-established toxic property of copper was expected to lessen the speed-killing barnacle

Barnacle

A barnacle is a type of arthropod belonging to infraclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea, and is hence related to crabs and lobsters. Barnacles are exclusively marine, and tend to live in shallow and tidal waters, typically in erosive settings. They are sessile suspension feeders, and have...

 growth which always occurred on ships' hulls. Alarm’s hull was first covered with soft stuff, which was hair, yarn and brown paper, and then covered with a layer of copper plates.

After a two-year deployment to the West Indies, Alarm was beached in order to examine the effects of the experiment. The copper had performed very well in protecting the hull from invasion by worm, and in preventing the growth of weed, for when in contact with water, the copper produced a poisonous film, composed mainly of oxychloride, that deterred these marine creatures. Furthermore, as this film was slightly soluble it gradually washed away, leaving no way in which marine life could attach itself to the ship. Satisfied that the copper had had the desired effect, the Admiralty

Admiralty

The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

 introduced copper sheathing on a number of frigates.

In 1776 Alarm was resurveyed. It was soon discovered that the sheathing had become detached from the hull in many places because the iron nails which had been used to fasten the copper to the timbers had been ‘much rotted’. Closer inspection revealed that some nails, which were less corroded, were insulated from the copper by brown paper which was trapped under the nail head. The copper had been delivered to the dockyard wrapped in the paper which was not removed before the sheets were nailed to the hull. The obvious conclusion therefore, and the one which had been highlighted in a separate report to the Admiralty in as early as 1763, was that iron should not be allowed direct contact with copper in a sea water environment if severe corrosion of the iron was to be avoided. Later ships were designed with this in mind. The Admiralty had largely suspended the programme of fitting ships with copper sheathing after the 1763 report, and had not shown any further interest in developing effective copper sheathing until 1775. In the meantime the copper sheathing was removed from Alarm, and several other test vessels until an effective solution to the corrosion problem could be developed.

Later in her career she was commanded by a young John Jervis

John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent

Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent GCB, PC was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom...

, from 1769 onwards. He sailed for the Mediterranean in May and arrived in Genoa

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

 on 7 September. Aboard Alarm at this time was Samuel Hood, son of Alexander Hood, and one of the many members of the Hood family

Admiral Hood

Admiral Hood may refer to::* Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood * Alexander Hood, 1st Viscount Bridport * Sir Samuel Hood, 1st Baronet * Arthur Hood, 1st Baron Hood of Avalon...

 to serve at sea. Samuel Hood served aboard Alarm from November 1765 to July 1772, in the post of purser

Purser

The purser joined the warrant officer ranks of the Royal Navy in the early fourteenth century and existed as a Naval rank until 1852. The development of the warrant officer system began in 1040 when five English ports began furnishing warships to King Edward the Confessor in exchange for certain...

.

Near loss

On the return voyage to England, on 1 May 1770 she was saved by Georges René Le Peley de Pléville

Georges René Le Peley de Pléville

Georges-René Le Pelley de Pléville was the governor of the port of Marseilles, a French admiral, minister for the navy and the colonies from 15 July 1797 to 27 April 1798, a senator, a knight of the Order of St Louis and the Order of Cincinnatus, and one of the very first Grand officiers of the...

 from being wrecked off Marseilles. The Alarm had been battered by a storm in the evening and ran aground on the coast of Provence

Provence

Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...

 amongst boulders, and was in imminent danger of breaking up. Pléville quickly mustered the harbour pilots and rushed to the relief of the English. By the time he was able to board her, the Alarm had already almost heeled over many times, and began to run aground. Pléville ordered a manœuvre that got her afloat again and brought her into harbour at Marseilles. In gratitude for Pléville's actions, the Admiralty

Admiralty

The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

 sent Jervis and Alarm back to Marseilles in December to deliver a letter which read
The present was a piece of silverware in the form of an urn

Urn

An urn is a vase, ordinarily covered, that usually has a narrowed neck above a footed pedestal. "Knife urns" placed on pedestals flanking a dining-room sideboard were an English innovation for high-style dining rooms of the late 1760s...

, on which were engraved dolphin

Dolphin

Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...

s and other maritime attributes, with a model of the Alarm, and a richly engraved lid surmounted by a triton

Triton (mythology)

Triton is a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the big sea. He is the son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and Amphitrite, goddess of the sea, whose herald he is...

. Remarkable in its elegance of form and high level of finish and workmanship, this vase bore the English Coat of Arms, and had the following inscription, intended to preserve the memory of the event which had merited the present:
Thinking that he could not receive a gift from a foreign sovereign, de Pléville only accepted the urn after having been duly authorised to do so by the king of France. Jervis was also extremely grateful to de Pléville, and eager for the chance to reward him. He wrote to his sister from Alarm, anchored at Mahon

Mahon

Mahón is a municipality and the capital city of the Balearic Island of Minorca , located in the eastern part of the island. Mahon has the second deepest natural harbor in the world: 5 km long and up to 900m. wide...

 on 27 December 1770:
Ten years later, de Pléville's devotion to the safety of the Alarm gained another reward, when his son — a young naval officer — was captured on board a frigate at the end of a battle in 1780 and taken to England. There, the British Admiralty sent him back to France without requiring a prisoner-exchange, after having authorised him to choose three other French naval officers to go with him.

The Admiralty were also greatly pleased by Jervis’ actions in this matter, allowing his further promotion. From 1771 to May 1772, the ship became the “home” of the Duke of Gloucester

Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh

Prince William, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh was a member of the British Royal Family, a grandson of George II and a younger brother of George III.-Early life:...

, who was spending time in the Mediterranean because of ill health. Alarm then returned to England for paying off.

Off America

On 9 March 1783, Alarm was involved in one of the last naval battles of the American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

, when two American frigates, the USS Alliance

USS Alliance (1778)

The first USS Alliance of the United States Navy was a 36-gun sailing frigate of the American Revolutionary War, notable for having fired the last shot of the war....

 and the USS Duc de Lauzun

USS Duc de Lauzun (1782)

USS Duc de Lauzun was a frigate in the Continental Navy.Formerly a British customs ship, Duc De Lauzun was purchased in October 1782 at Dover, England, and outfitted in Nantes, France...

 were intercepted by Alarm, Sibyl

HMS Sibyl (1779)

HMS Sibyl was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The Sibyl was first commissioned in October 1778 under the command of Captain Thomas Pasley.- References :...

 and the sloop of war

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

, HMS Tobago (1777)Tobago. The American ships were transporting bullion to the Continental forces

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and both sides were unaware that peace had been ratified over a month before. After a short battle between HMS Sibyl and the American ships, the Americans escaped. Alarm did not actively participate in the battle herself.

In 1796, Alarm violated Trinidad

Trinidad

Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...

’s neutrality, so contributing to Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

’s declaration of war on the side of revolutionary France.

Alarm continued in service for a number of years, finally being broken up in September 1812 at Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

having spent 34 years in service.