If you didn't notice, the last three ships were all named Arethuse by their French builders. The French kept building them, naming them Arethuse, and the British kept capturing them.
If you didn't notice, the last three ships were all named Arethuse by their French builders. The French kept building them, naming them Arethuse, and the British kept capturing them.
This statement applies to just about every ship the French built or possessed in the period -- this is what happens when one's naval "institutional memory" is entirely focused in the one class of people the revolutionaries insist upon annihilating.Originally Posted by Coog
HMS FOUDROYANT
The Foudroyant was a 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was later captured and served in the Royal Navy as the Third Rate HMS Foudroyant.
Foudroyant was built at Toulon to a design by François Coulomb, and was launched on 18 December 1750. She was present at the Battle of Minorca in 1756, where she engaged the British flagship HMS Ramillies. She then formed part of a squadron under Jean-François de La Clue-Sabran, during which time she was captured during the Battle of Cartagena off Cartagena, Spain on 28 February 1758 by Monmouth, Hampton Court and Swiftsure. The Monmouth's captain was wounded early in the fight and the two lieutenants commanded the ship for most of the battle. The captain of the Foudroyant insisted upon handing his sword to the lieutenants including Lt Hammick who commanded the main gun-deck. After the battle the ship's crew composed a poem about the action which included the lines "Gallant Hammick aimed his guns with care, not one random shot he fired in the air".
She was brought into Portsmouth and surveyed there in September 1758 for £163.10.2d. The Admiralty approved her purchase on 7 November that year, and she was duly bought on 6 December for the sum of £16,759.19.11d. She was officially named Foudroyant and entered onto the navy lists on 13 December 1758. She underwent a refit at Portsmouth between February and August 1759 for the sum of £14,218.9.2d to fit her for navy service.
She was commissioned in June 1759 under the command of Captain Richard Tyrell, serving as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Hardy between June and October 1759. She spent August sailing with Admiral Edward Hawke's fleet. Foudroyant underwent another refit at Portsmouth in the spring of 1760, commissioning later that year under Captain Robert Duff. She sailed to the Leeward Islands in April 1760, but had returned to Britain by Autumn 1761 to undergo another refit. She took part in the operations off Martinique in early 1762, before coming under the command of Captain Molyneaux Shuldham later that year. She served for a short period as the flagship of Admiral George Rodney, before being paid off in 1763. She underwent several surveys, and a large repair between February 1772 and January 1774, after which she was fitted to serve as the Plymouth guardship in April 1775. She recommissioned again in August that year, under the command of Captain John Jervis, and was stationed at Plymouth until early 1777.
In March 1777 she was fitted for service in the English Channel, and spent that summer cruising off the French coast. On 18 June 1778 she engaged and captured the 32-gun Pallas, and was then present with Admiral Augustus Keppel's fleet at the Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778. Jervis was briefly replaced as captain by Captain Charles Hudson, while the Foudroyant became the flagship of her old commander, now Vice-Admiral Lord Shuldham. Jervis resumed command in 1779, sailing with Hardy's fleet, before being moved to a detached squadron in December 1779. Foudroyant returned to port in early 1780, where she was refitted and had her hull coppered. On the completion of this work by May, she returned to sea, sailing at first with Admiral Francis Geary's fleet, and later with George Darby's. She was then present at the relief of Gibraltar in April 1781, after which she was moved to Robert Digby's squadron. By the summer of 1781 she had returned to sailing with Darby's fleet, and by April 1782 had moved to a squadron under Samuel Barrington. She captured the French 74-gun Pégase on 21 April 1782, for which actions Jervis was knighted. She sailed again in July 1782, this time as part of a fleet under Admiral Richard Howe, before spending the autumn cruising in the Western Approaches. She briefly came under the command of Captain William Cornwallis in 1783, but was soon paid off and then fitted for ordinary.
An Admiralty order of 24 August 1787 provided for Foudroyant to be broken up and she was sold off for £479.3.2d. The breaking up had been completed by 26 September 1787.
HMS ARAB
HMS Arab was a 22-gun post ship of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the 18-gun French privateer Brave, which the British captured in 1798. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars until she was sold in 1810.
During her 12-year career she served on three separate stations, and was involved in two international incidents. The first incident occurred under Captain John Perkins and involved the Danes. The second incident occurred under Captain Lord Cochrane and involved the Americans. She participated in the capture of Sint Eustatius and Saba. Under Captains Perkins and Maxwell she also took a considerable number of prizes.
Brave was built in Nantes around 1797. On 24 April 1798 the 36-gun Phoenix, under the command of Captain Lawrence William Halsted, captured Brave off Cape Clear. She was pierced for 22 guns and was carrying eighteen, mixed 12 and 18-pounders. Unusually for a privateer, Brave resisted capture, suffering several men killed and 14 wounded before she surrendered. Phoenix had no casualties and suffered trifling damage to her sails and rigging. Brave had a crew of 160 men and also some 50 English prisoners on board, none of whom were injured. Halsted described Brave as being "a very fine ship, of 600 Tons, is coppered, and sails exceedingly fast."
After Phoenix captured Brave, the British brought her to Plymouth, where she arrived on 12 May. She was named and registered on 24 July 1798 and fitted out between November 1798 and April 1799. During this period a lower deck, quarterdeck and a forecastle were added. She was commissioned as HMS Arab in December 1798 under Commander Peter Spicer.
On 5 January 1799 Captain Thomas Bladen Capel took command; he sailed Arab for Jamaica 23 April. On 23 August, Quebec shared with Arab the capture of the American brig Porcupine. Porcupine, of 113 tons and with a crew of eight men, was sailing from New York to Havana with a cargo wine, oil, soap and sundries. Porcupine was condemned but Quebec appealed. During this period Arab detained, on suspicion, the Spanish brig Esperansa, which was sailing from Carthagena with a cargo of cotton, hides, and so forth.
Captain John Perkins (Jack Punch) took command in January 1801. In March 1801 Arab, in company with the 18-gun British privateer Experiment, caught and challenged two Danish vessels, the brig Lougen, under the command of Captain C.W. Jessen, and the schooner Den Aarvaagne. Arab approached the two Danish vessels and, according to Danish accounts, without warning, fired several broadsides at Lougen before the Danish ship was able to return fire. Lougen, which had escaped serious damage, began to return fire steadily. Experiment initially attempted to capture Aarvaagne, but Aarvaagne obeyed orders to stay out of the fight and instead escaped south to Christiansted on St. Croix with its intelligence on British actions. Experiment then joined Arab in the attack on Lougen, with the two British ships sandwiching the Danish ship. During the engagement, which lasted for over an hour, one of Lougen's shots struck the Arab's cathead and loosed the bower anchor. (Perkin's reported that it was the first shot from Lougen that loosed the bower anchor.) Arab's crew was unable to cut the anchor free, leaving Arab unable to manoeuvre effectively. This allowed Jessen to steer a course that brought him under the protection of the shore batteries and then into St Thomas.
The Danish government awarded Jessen a presentation sword made of gold, a medal and 400 rixdollars (the equivalent of a whole year’s salary) for his actions in escaping from a numerically superior force. Still, Perkins, after having repaired his battle damage, cruised outside the harbour and in a two week period captured more than a dozen Danish and other foreign vessels.
On 13 April Arab captured the Spanish armed schooner Duenda. Perkins then used her and Arab to transport Colonel Blunt and 100 men of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) to the wealthy islands of Sint Eustatius and Saba. On 16 April Perkins and Blunt captured the islands, together with their French garrisons, forty-seven cannon and 338 barrels of gunpowder.
Command of Arab passed to Captain Robert Fanshawe in 1802. Fanshawe took her back to Plymouth, where she spent between August and December being repaired and refitted. After a brief period spent laid up she was brought back into service with the resumption of war with France.
Arab was recommissioned in October 1803 under Captain Lord Cochrane, who had been assigned to Arab by Earl St Vincent. In his autobiography, Cochrane compared the Arab to a collier, and his first thoughts on seeing her being repaired at Plymouth were that she would "sail like a haystack". Under Cochrane's command Arab twice collided with Royal Navy ships, first with the 12-gun HMS Bloodhound, and then with the storeship HMS Abundance. Despite his misgivings, Cochrane still managed to intercept and board an American merchant ship, the Chatham, thereby creating an international incident that led to the consignment of Arab and her commander to fishing fleet protection duties beyond Orkney in the North Sea, an assignment that Cochrane bitterly complained about. Cochrane would later refer to his time in the Arab in the North Sea and the Downs as "naval exile in a dreary tub".
Captain Keith Maxwell replaced Cochrane in 1805, and sailed Arab to serve with the squadron off Boulogne. On 18 July the British spotted the French Boulogne flotilla sailing along the shore. Captain Edward Owen of HMS Immortalite sent Calypso, Fleche, Arab and the brigs HMS Watchful, HMS Sparkler, and HMS Pincher in pursuit of 22 large schooners flying the Dutch flag. As Maxwell came close to shore he found the water barely deep enough to keep Arab from running aground. Still, the British managed to force three of the schooners to ground on the Banc de Laine near Cap Gris Nez; their crews ran two others ashore. The British also drove six French gun-vessels on shore. However, the bank off Cape Grinez, and the shot and shells from the right face of its powerful battery, soon compelled the British to move back from the shore. Arab suffered seven wounded and a great deal of damage. Fleche was the closest inshore owing to her light draft of water; she had five men severely wounded and damage to her rigging.
At some point a shell from a shore battery hit Arab's main-mast-head and then fell to the gun deck. At first a seaman named Clorento tried to defuse the shell. While he was doing this master's mate Edward Mansell and two more seamen came up. Together they got the shell into the sea, where it exploded. The next day Arab buried her dead at sea, after which the men on Immortalite cheered Arab. Maxwell wrote to the Patriotic Fund at Lloyd's, drawing its attention to the heroism of the four men. Thereafter, the Fund voted Mansell £50 and the three other seamen £20 each. The fund gave an additional £125 for Maxwell to divide between eight other crewmen in graduated amounts.
In December 1805, Arab was off the west coast of Africa, together with Favourite. Subsequently Arab returned to the West Indies. During her time there Lieutenant Edward Dix, as acting captain, temporarily replaced Maxwell for a period of five weeks in 1806. Two days after Dix joined Arab, yellow fever broke out which the crew of Arab, except Dix and eight others, contracted; 33 men died. Maxwell resumed command and returned to Spithead in 1807 where Arab's remaining crew were paid off.
Arab was placed in ordinary at Woolwich and was sold at Deptford on 20 September 1810.
HMS BABET
HMS Babet was a 20-gun sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. She had previously been a corvette of the French Navy under the name Babet, until her capture in 1794, during the French Revolutionary Wars. She served with the British, capturing several privateers and other vessels, and was at the Battle of Groix. She disappeared in the Caribbean in 1801, presumably having foundered.
Babet was built at Le Havre, one of a two ship class of 20-gun corvettes built to a design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb. In the Bay of Biscay, on 18 May 1793, Captain Andrew Snape Douglas's HMS Phaeton captured her sister, Prompte, which the Royal Navy took into service as HMS Prompte. Babet was laid down in September 1792, fitted out in May 1793 and launched on 12 December 1793. In French service she carried twenty to twenty-six 8-pounder guns.
Babet's French career was brief. Under Lieutenant Pierre-Joseph-Paul Belhomme she was part of a squadron consisting of two frigates and another corvette that a British squadron under John Borlase Warren engaged off the Île de Batz on 23 April 1794. HMS Melampus and HMS Arethusa captured Babet and brought her into Portsmouth, arriving on 30 April. The action had cost Babet some 30 to 40 of her crew killed and wounded. Arethusa had three men killed and five wounded.
Babet was registered for service on 19 June 1794, and was commissioned in December that year under Captain the Honourable John Murray, for service with Lord Howe's fleet. Captain Joshua Mulock replaced Murray in April 1795 while Babet was being fitted for service at Portsmouth, a process completed on 10 May that year, having cost £2,544. Captain Edward Codrington replaced Mulock; Babet was Codrington's first command after he had made post captain.
Codrington then sailed Babet to join Lord Bridport's fleet. On 23 June 1795 she was with the fleet at the battle of Groix. In 1847, the Admiralty awarded any remaining survivors who claimed it, the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "23rd June 1795".
Captain William Lobb replaced Codrington in December 1795 and sailed Babet to the Leeward Islands in February the following year. There Babet was present at the capture of Demerara on 23 April, and the capture of Berbice on 2 May 1796.
In July 1796, Babet, Prompte, Scipio and Pique captured the Catherina Christina in July 1796. At some point Babet sailed in company with Prompte and the two vessels captured the Danish brig Eland Fanoe. On 23 July, Scipio, Babet, Pique and Prompte shared in the capture of the Ariel and the Zee Nymphe.
On 16 September Thorn, Scipio and Babet captured the John and Mary. The first, fourth and fifth-class shares of the prize money were shared, by agreement, with Madras and Prompte. Thorn captured the schooner Abigail on 24 September. This time the first, fourth and fifth-class shares were shared with Scipio, Babet, Madras and Prompte. Then on 16 November Thorn and Resource captured the Spanish schooner Del Carmen. Once again the first, fourth and fifth class shares were shared with Scipio, Babet, Madras and Prompte.
On 10 January 1797, Babet and Bellona drove a small French privateer schooner ashore on Deseada. They tried to use the privateer Legere, of six guns and 48 men, which Bellona had captured three days earlier, to retrieve the schooner that was on shore. In the effort, both French privateers were destroyed. Then Babet chased a brig, which had been a prize to the schooner, ashore. The British were unable to get her off so they destroyed her.
Between 25 July and 5 October Babet captured three merchant vessels:
brig Decision (or Decisive or Maria), of 200 tons and eight men, recaptured while sailing from Cape to Puerto Rico in ballast;
brig Schylhill (probably Schuylkill), of Philadelphia, of 100 tons and eight men, sailing from New York to Puerto Rico with a cargo of flour, supposedly Spanish property; and
barque Æolus, of Copenhagen and of 180 tons and 10 men, sailing from Marseilles to St. Thomas, with a cargo of wine, French property.
Captain Jemmett Mainwaring took command of Babet in June 1797. Then on 16 January 1798 Babet's boats captured the French schooner Désirée. The schooner was sailing towards Babet as Babet was sailing between Martinique and Dominique. As soon a the schooner realized that Babet was a British warship she attempted to escape. The wind failed and the schooner then took to her sweeps. Lieutenant Pym of Babet took 24 men in her pinnace and launch and went after the schooner. After rowing several leagues the boats closed to within range of their cannon, which they then commenced to fire. The British closed on their quarry despite a strong counter-fire. The British then boarded Désirée and took her. She was armed with six guns and had a crew of 46 men. The British lost one man killed and five wounded; the French had three men killed and 15 wounded. Désirée was six days out of Guadeloupe and had taken one American brig that had been sailing from St. Vincent to Boston.
Babet was refitted at Portsmouth between July and December 1798 at a cost of £5,194. Then, in December she recaptured the American ship Helena.
On 18 and 19 January 1799, Babet captured two French fishing vessels, Deux Freres Unis, with a cargo of herring, and the Jacques Charles. On 24 June Babet was in company with Harpy when they captured the ship Weloverdagt.
Then Babet, under the command of Captain Jemmett Mainwairing, took part in the Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland in 1799. There she briefly served as Vice-Admiral Andrew Mitchell's flagship in the Zuider Zee. On 28 August 1799, the fleet captured several Dutch hulks and ships in the New Diep, in Holland. Babet was listed among the vessels qualifying to share in the prize money. However, by the time this was awarded in February 1802, Babet had been lost at sea. Similarly, Babet was also present at the subsequent Vlieter Incident on 30 August.
Babet was among the numerous vessels that shared in the proceeds after Dart cut out the French frigate Desirée from Dunkirk harbour on 8 July 1800.
Babet left Spithead on 14 September 1801, arrived at Fort Royal Bay, Martinique, on 24 October, and sailed the next day for Jamaica. She was not seen again; she had probably foundered at sea during a tropical storm.
Last edited by Coog; 05-12-2012 at 08:24.
HMS PIQUE
HMS Pique was a 38-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had formerly served with the French Navy, initially as the Fleur-de-Lys, and later as the Pique. She was captured in 1795 by HMS Blanche, in a battle that left the Blanche's commander, Captain Robert Faulknor, dead. HMS Pique was taken into service under her only British captain, David Milne, but served for just three years with the Royal Navy before being wrecked in an engagement with the French ship Seine in 1798. The Seine had been spotted heading for a French port and Pique and another British ship gave chase. All three ships ran aground after a long and hard-fought pursuit. The arrival of a third British ship ended French resistance, but while the Seine and Jason were both refloated, attempts to save the Pique failed; she bilged and had to be abandoned.
Pique was built at Rochefort as the Fleur-de-Lys, one of the six ship Galatée class designed by Raymond-Antoine Haran. She was launched on 2 December 1785. The French Revolution led to her being renamed Pique in June 1792.
The Pique encountered HMS Blanche off the island of Desirade at Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe on 4 January 1795. The Pique at first tried to avoid an action, but eventually the two ships came to close quarters in the early hours of 5 January. The two ships closed and exchanged broadsides, with both sustaining heavy damage; the Blanche lost her main and mizzen masts. The Pique then turned and ran afoul of the Blanche, with her bowsprit caught across her port quarter. While the French made several attempts to board, which were repulsed, the crew of the Blanche attempted to lash the bowsprit to their capstan, but during the attempt Captain Faulknor was killed by a musket ball to the heart. The Pique then broke away from the Blanche and came round her stern, this time colliding on the starboard quarter. Blanche's men quickly lashed the bowsprit to the stump of their mainmast, which held her fast. The Pique was now unable to manoeuvre or bring any of her guns to bear on the Blanche. After being repeatedly raked by Blanche's guns, the Pique surrendered. Casualties for the British were eight killed, including Captain Faulknor, and 21 wounded. The Pique had lost 76 killed and 110 wounded. The two ships were joined later that morning by the 64-gun HMS Veteran, which helped exchange and secure the prisoners and tow the ships to port. The Blanche towed her prize to a British port, where she was named and registered on 5 September.
HMS Pique was commissioned in September 1795 under Captain David Milne, and assigned to serve in the Leeward Islands. On 9 March 1796 Pique and Charon captured the French privateer Lacédémonienne off Barbados. She was described as a brig of 14 guns and 90 men. The British took her into service.
Pique then went on to serve as part of a squadron. She was present at the capture of the Dutch colonies of Demerera and Essequibo on 23 April 1796, and the capture of Berbice on 2 May 1796. She then returned to Britain and operated in the English Channel from 1797.
In July 1796, Babet, Prompte, Scipio and Pique captured the Catherina Christina in July 1796.
Pique shared with Révolutionnaire, Boadicea and the hired armed cutter Nimrod in the capture of the Anna Christiana on 17 May 1798.
While patrolling off the Penmarks on 29 June 1798 she and her consorts Mermaid and Jason came across the French frigate Seine. The Seine had crossed the Atlantic from the West Indies and was bound for a French port. The British squadron manoeuvred to cut her off from land, but the Mermaid, under Captain James Newman-Newman, soon lost contact, leaving the Pique under Milne and the Jason under Captain Charles Stirling, to chase down the Frenchman.
The chase lasted all day, until 11 o'clock at night when Pique was able to range alongside the Seine and fire a broadside. The two exchanged fire for several hours, with the lighter Pique suffering considerable damage to her masts and rigging. Jason then ranged up and Captain Stirling called upon Milne to anchor, but Milne did not hear and was determined to see the Seine captured, and pressed on. Before the battle could be resumed Pique ran suddenly aground. The Jason too ran aground before she could swing way, while the Seine was observed to have grounded, and lost all her masts in the process. As the tide rose the Seine was able to swing into a position to rake the two British ships. With difficulty the sailors of Jason dragged several guns to the bow in order to exchange fire, while the Pique was able to bring her foremost guns to bear. Under fire from both British ships, the appearance on the scene of the Mermaid convinced the French to surrender. Jason had lost seven killed and 12 wounded, while Pique sustained casualties of two killed and six wounded. The Seine however had 170 killed and 100 wounded.
Mermaid arrived and retrieved Jason, but Pique had bilged and had to be destroyed. St Fiorenzo too arrived and was instrumental in recovering Seine. The Royal Navy took Seine into service under her existing name.
HMS LACEDEMONIAN
HMS Lacedemonian (or Lacedaemonian) was the French brig Lacedemonienne, launched in 1793, that the British captured in 1796 near Barbados. She was at the capture of Saint Lucia in May of the next year, but the French re-captured her a year after that.
Pique and Charon captured Lacedemonian on 9 March 1796 to the windward of Barbados. She was described as a privateer brig of 14 guns and 90 men. The British took her into service and commissioned her in May under the command of the newly promoted Commander George Sayer.
She was part of the expeditionary force under Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby and Rear-Admiral Sir Hugh C. Christian at the capture of the island of Saint Lucia in May 1796. Commander Thomas Boys replaced Sayer and he sailed Lacedemonian to Martinique. Boys received promotion to post-captain on 3 July 1796. His replacement was Commander Thomas Harvey. Shortly thereafter Harvey transferred to Pelican. Commander Matthew Wrench took command on 27 March 1797.
Lacedemonian was under Wrench's command when the French captured her on 6 April 1797. She was patrolling near Point Salines, Grenada, when she encountered a sloop. Lacedemonian gave chase for much of the day, when towards late afternoon another sloop appeared and started to chase Lacedomonian, while firing some random shots from long range. Lacedemonium gave up her chase and turned her attention towards her pursuer. Eventually, the newcomer caught up and Wrench stopped, with his crew at quarters. The newcomer did not display a flag but replied to queries in English. Lacedemonian's crew relaxed, so when the newcomer sent over a boat with armed men, and ran into Lacedemonian, they were taken by surprise. Wrench tried to organize resistance but the attackers knocked him down and took over the brig. The subsequent court martial ordered a severe reprimand for Wrench for having allowed himself to be caught unprepared.
HMS ALBANAISE
The French brig Albanaise (or Albannese) was launched in 1790. In June 1800 the Royal Navy captured her in the Mediterranean and took her into service as HMS Albanaise. In November her crew mutinied, took command of the vessel, and sailed her to Malaga where they surrendered her to the Spanish.
Albanaise was a tartane built for the purpose of transporting lumber for shipbuilding from Albania and Italy. She was built to a design by Ricaud du Temple, with the plans being dated 23 September 1789 and approved 23 October 1789. However the project was abandoned and she was employed as an ordinary transport. In late 1792 she served as a powder magazine for four small frigates converted into bomb vessels. At the time she was armed with four cannons. She then served out of Agde and Sète under Enseigne de vaisseaux Bernard.
In 1795 the French Navy converted her to a gun boat, of eight guns. Then between 1798 and February 1799 the French converted her to a brig, and armed her with 12 cannons.
On 4 June 1800 Phoenix and Port Mahon captured Albanaise. She was sailing from Toulon with provisions for Genoa when she encountered the Port Mahon, which initiated the chase about 35 miles west of Corsica. The chase lasted until early evening when Phoenix came up as Albanaise was just six miles out of Port Fino on Elba. Lieutenant Etiénne J. (or S.) P. Rolland fired two broadsides and then struck. (A subsequent court martial exonerated Rolland of the loss of his vessel.) Haerlem shared in the capture, as did a number of other vessels in the squadron blockading Genoa.
The British took her into service as HMS Albanaise and commissioned her under the command of Lieutenant Francis Newcombe.
On 20 September she captured the Spanish vessel Virgen del Rosario. Then on 9 October she cleared the trabaccolo Santa Maria, which was carrying linseed from Barré to Ferraro.
However in November the crew of Albanaise mutinied while she was escorting a small convoy of seven merchantmen that were carrying cattle and barley from Arzew for the garrison at Gibraltar. On 22 November she had captured a small Spanish vessel and taken her eight-man crew board, while putting five men aboard the prize, including master's mate John Terrel as commander. Newcombe then took special precautions, worried about the possibility of the prisoners conspiring against their captors.
Newcombe was awakened by noises at midnight and on discovering the mutiny, was able to shoot Hugh Keenan, one of the mutineers, dead. He would have shot the ringleader, Jacob Godfrey, but his pistol misfired. The mutineers then overpowered him and tied him up. The mutineers also restrained the other officers and loyal crew. The next day the mutineers took Albanaise into Malaga where they surrendered her to the Spanish.
The court martial of Newcombe and his officers for their conduct during the mutiny took place on 7 June 1801 on board Kent off Alexandria. The court acquitted Newcombe and his officers, judging that the crew (many of whom were foreigners), had risen and overpowered the officers or restrained them and that the gunner, Mr. Lewyn, was to be especially commended for having resisted until wounded. The court gave its opinion that Lieutenant William Prosser Kent was unfit to hold a commission in the Navy because he refused, “from mistaken religious motives”, to give his evidence under oath. It further stated that it had reason to believe that Master’s Mate John Tyroll (or Tyrell), although away in a prize at the time of the mutiny, knew of the plan and had not given warning. The court recommended further investigation into the crewmen Alexander M’Kiever and Thomas Parsons, who had been seen armed.
Godfrey was hanged in January 1802. Four crewmen were tried on Donegal in Portsmouth on 18 June 1802. Tyroll was acquitted, the only evidence against him being an ambiguous statement by Godfrey and hearsay from another mutineer who was never caught. Furthermore, his conduct in the year after the mutiny, when he had been transferred from vessel to vessel, had been exemplary as he participated in some 30 boat and other actions. The other three, Parsons, M’Keiver and J. Marriott, had returned from Malaga with Newcombe. The court martial board ordered that all three were to forfeit all pay and were to be incarcerated for three months in the Marshalsea. In addition, M’Keiver received 50 lashes and Marriott 100.
The British also captured several of the mutineers. Three more were tried on 27 September 1802 aboard Centaur. The court martial acquitted one man and sentenced another to 300 lashes. The court judged a third man, Patrick (or Henry) Kennedy, to have been a ringleader and ordered him tried separately. He was tried on 5 October and was sentenced to be hanged. He was hanged aboard Hussar on 16 October.
HMS WASP
HMS Wasp was an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French privateer Guèpe, captured in 1800. She served with the British during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was sold out of the service in 1811.
Guèpe was a brig built at Bordeaux in 1798 that operated against British shipping in the Atlantic. On 29 August 1800 the vessels of the British blockading squadron, which was under the command of Sir John Warren, sent their boats into the harbour at Vigo to attack and cut her out.
The party went in and, after a 15-minute fight, captured the Guêpe and towed her out. She had a flush deck and was pierced for 20 guns but carried eighteen 9-pounders. She and her crew of 161 men were under the command of Citizen Dupan. In the attack she lost 25 men killed, including Dupan, and 40 wounded. British casualties amounted to four killed, 23 wounded and one missing. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "29 Aug. Boat Service 1800" to all surviving claimants from the action.
A prize crew took Guêpe back to Portsmouth where the Admiralty fitted her out between October 1800 and August 1801. During this time she was re-rigged.
Now named HMS Wasp she was commissioned in July 1801 under Commander Charles Bullen, and sent to Sierra Leone at the end of the year. She sailed from there to the West Indies, and was paid off in July 1802.
Wasp recommissioned again in May 1803 under Commander Frederick William Aylmer, and on 19 July that year captured the privateer Despoir. Despoir was a lugger, pierced for 10 guns but only mounting two. She had a crew of 28 men under the command of Jean Delaballe. She was three days out of Hodierne and had made no captures. At the time Seahorse was in company with Wasp.
Aylmer sailed to the Mediterranean in June 1804. In August Wasp captured a Spanish lugger and sloop. The French privateer Venus recaptured these vessels, only to be herself captured by several East Indiamen, notably the Eliza Ann. Venus had five crewmen from Wasp on board as prisoners.
On 12 and 16 January 1805, Wasp, under Alymer, captured the Spanish brigs Minerva and Carmen, and their cargoes. About two weeks later, on 21 February, Wasp captured the Spanish ship Victoria, and her cargo.
Aylmer was succeeded by Lieutenant Joseph Packwood in an acting capacity, and he by Commander John Simpson, also in 1805. Wasp was with Sir John Orde's squadron patrolling off Cadiz, and had a narrow escape from a French squadron in August 1805.
On 12 December, Boadicea, Arethusa and Wasp left Cork, escorting a convoy of 23 merchant vessels. Four days later the convoy encountered a French squadron consisting of five ships of the line and four sailing frigates, as well as nine other vessels that were too far away for assessment. The letter writer to the Naval Chronicle surmised that the distant vessels were the Africa squadron that Lark had escorted and that the French had captured. On this occasion, the British warships and six merchant vessels went one way and the rest went another way. The French chased the warships and the six for a day, ignored the 17, and eventually gave up their pursuit. Boadicea then shadowed the French while Wasp went back to French and Spanish coasts to alert the British warships there. Arethusa and her six charges encountered the French squadron again the next day, but after a desultory pursuit the French sailed off.
Lieutenant Buckland Sterling Bluett of Scorpion received promotion to Commander and took over command of Wasp in 1806. He then sailed to the Leeward Islands. On 24 May she came across the former British cutter HMS Dominica, which had been taken by mutineers four days earlier and delivered to the French, who had immediately commissioned her under the name Napoléon and sent her out to capture some merchant vessels at Roseau. Wasp retook the cutter, which had on board 73 men under the command of Vincent Gautier, two of whom were killed before she surrendered.
In 1807 Commander William Parkinson took command. Wasp returned to Britain later that year under the command of Commander John Haswell.
Wasp was laid up at Deptford in May 1809. She was offered for sale on 13 December 1810, and was sold there on 17 May 1811.
I'm going to confine my notes to ships we're seeing in the first release, for ships you might look into:
Temeraire-class 74-gun 3rd Rate Ship of the Line: Genereux played Musical Flags, taken by the RN from August to December 1793, going back to the French and retaken in 1800 to serve out her last days under RN colors. Fougueux was captured at Trafalgar, but had no chance to show her stuff for New Management being wrecked soon after. Commerce de Marseiiles->Lys->Tricolore was taken by the RN at Toulon in August 1793, but destroyed in a siege there that December. (Best guess, same events as Genereux's cchanging hands.) Impetueux, too, was taken but burned by accident at Portsmouth, thus also-captured sister-ship America took her name upon recommissioning into the RN. Aquilon was also taken, at the Battle of the Nile, recommissioned as HMS Aboukir. Additionally, two classes of two ships each were built to the Temeraire design in English yards, the Pompees (HMS Superb and Achilles, built from studying Pompee) and Americas (HMS Northumberland and Renown, similarly reverse-engineered from captured L'America/HMS Impetueux. Actually, out of 67 Temeraires listed at ThreeDecks, twenty-five, over a THIRD of the class, are listed as captures--this implies to me that the RN was impressed enough by the design to perhaps adopt an unofficial policy of "let the French do the building work, then go take their toys away for a free expansion of the Fleet whenever possible."
Concorde-class 32-gun 5th Rate Frigate: La Concorde and Courageuse--2/3 of the entire class--were captured by the Royal Navy, the exception La Hermione being wrecked.
Going the opposite direction:
Bellona/Arrogant/Ramillies/Elizabeth-class 74-gun 3rd Rate Ship of the Line: The former HMS Swiftsure and Berwick saw service at Trafalgar, in the French Marine Nationale.
Amazon-class 5th Rate Frigate: To find captures, I need to know exactly which of the THREE classes from 1773 to 1799 (latter two only four years apart) Andrea's designing for. I THINK I saw a capture or two listed for the 1773's, but none for the 1795's or the two 1799's.
Thanks for all this info.
As a bit of a layman when it comes to Naval warefare, it is great to see how much milage there is in the first release shipping.
It will keep me researching and painting for quite some time.
Bligh.
Pretty-much -- the French built great ships; but esp. given what the Revolution did to the command ranks (the officers all being Nobles), the French may as well have left the ships at anchor outside their harbors with placards saying "FREE TO GOOD HOME". The Spanish were even worse, both before and after the Rev started....
Of course, with all their time spent training for the Big War, the British (as our dear Coog has amply illustrated) were losing smaller ships in job-lots, so.... :)
Under those conditions, I woulda helped myself to one... other than that pesky problem of needing several hundred unpredictable meatbags to help me get it home. LOL
Bobby, thanks for all the work on this thread. Very informative.
Guerriere's history conflicts... Wikipedia has her as a modified and upgunned conventional version of Forfait's Romaine-class mortar frigates, while ThreeDecks has her designed by Jean-Francois Lafosse. This is most annoying, as I'm trying to ID possible sculpts for War of 1812 and Guerriere is a high-profile sticking point.
It seems there is a lot of conflicting information on this period on lots of ships. Quite often there is not any surviving records on ship constuction and much is speculated based on the information that is available.
History, in general, can be a bit tricky. We had a good conversation about such matters on another thread. DB, I am confident that where you land will be valuable input.
Right--if Greenwich and the various French naval museums would digitalize their draughts and plans collections, that'd be a big help. It'd help MORE if Wikipedia weren't "anybody who feels like it can toss up any crap they like"... If I could get plans for Guerriere and a Romaine I could either confirm or dispose of the theory, just like the question about HMS's Revenge and Milford as decendents of 1782 Temeraire. (Revenge is dimensionally VERY close, and her gun layout is almost identical to the rearmament of RN Temeraires with their added 6-gun midships roundhouse, but there's a LOT of room to hide differences in a box of several thousand cubic feet.)
Not that daft theory again :)
Losing ships in "job lots" because the duties involved were dangerous and conducted regularly on the enemies shores - and taking far bigger job lots in return (I think we established the loss rate even for the small ships was in the region of 10:1)
Yes indeed I'll second that.
Time for a little cudos me thinks.
Bligh.
Hardly "daft" if Coog keeps unearthing examples of it.
And I don't think anyone's ever established how one counts instances of a merchantman being captured by each side at least once; or how many "battles" consisted of one side firing a couple guns and the other side promptly giving up (given the morale problems of the French maritime services, I suspect that's how most British small-ship "victories" occurred -- and why they aren't much commented-on in the histories; sort-of difficult to make "[Eccles] I RESIGN! [/Eccles]" sound glorious, no? :) ).
Yes, daft. As Coog said himself, his postings were selective. Because page after page of HM Frigate xxx engaged French frigate yyy would be boring.
And it was a 10;1 win/loss ratio in WARSHIPS. If you add merchies into the equation you need to add some zeroes to that ratio (remember, RN merchant ship captures were in the tens of thousands).
Last edited by David Manley; 04-14-2013 at 23:25.
This thread is a great read... thanks to all for posting the stories.
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