French Frigate Egyptienne (1799)
The only Prize taken in this class which performed any notable service was the Egyptienne.
Égyptienne was a Francois Caro designed as one of a pair of two ship Forte Class Frigates. She had been originally ordered on 15th of June, 1798 as a 74 gun ship of the line. Laid down on the 26th of September, 1798, during building she was modified to a Heavy Frigate. She was launched on the 17th of July 1799, and completed and armed at Toulon on 23 September 1800. The foremost maindeck port was found too curved in the bow to house a gun, and thus Égyptienne received only 48 cannon instead of the intended 50.
Portrait of Egyptienne by Jean-Jacques Baugean
History FRANCE Name: Egyptienne Builder: Built at Toulon Laid down: July 1798 Launched: 17 July 1799 Completed: November 1799 Captured: 2 September 1801, by the Royal Navy GREAT BRITAIN Name: Egyptienne Acquired: 2 September 1801 Fate: Sold for breaking up 30 April 1817
General characteristics
Type: 40 gun Fifth rate Frigate Tonnage: 1,434 4⁄94 (bm) Length:
- 169 ft 8 in (51.71 m) (overall)
- 141 ft 4 3⁄4 in (43.1 m) (keel)
Beam: 43 ft 8 in (13.31 m) Depth of hold: 15 ft 1 in (4.60 m) Sail plan: Full rigged ship Armament:
- French service
UD:28 × 24 pdr guns
QD:12 × 8 pdr guns + 2 × 36 pdr brass Obusiers
Fc:4 × 8 pdr guns + 2 × 36 pdr brass Obusiers
- British service
UD:28 × 24pdr guns
QD:2 × 9 pdr guns + 12 × 32 pdr Carronades
Fc: 2 × 9 pdr guns + 4 × 32 pdr Carronades
French service.
HMS Egyptienne was originally a French Frigate Commissioned in the November of 1799.
In 1801 Napoleon required reinforcements for the Army of Egypt and the Frigates Egyptienne and Justice, both carrying troops and munitions, were dispatched from Toulon. On the 3rd of February the vessels anchored in the port of Alexandria.
The British discovered Causse, Egyptienne, Justice, Regeneree and two ex Venetian frigates in the harbour there at its capitulation on the 2nd of September of that year following the capture of Alexandria. The British took Egyptienne into service on the 27th of September, and in the January of 1802 Captain Thomas Stephenson took command of her for the voyage to Britain. Aboard she had Colonel Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner tasked with conveying of the Rosetta Stone to England. As Egyptienne approached the Downs she collided with the HEIC ship the Marquise Wellsley, and finally arrived safely at Woolwich on the 13th of February.
British service.
The Admiralty inducted her into the Royal Navy as HMS Egyptienne, and between the October and December of 1802 she was fitted out at Woolwich, at a cost of £12,625. During this period she was under the command of Captain Charles Ogle.
Egyptienne was commissioned under Captain Charles Fleeming in April 1803 for service in the English Channel and off the coast of France. Here, on the 27th of July, she captured the 16 gun French Brig-sloop Epervier carrying dispatches from Guadaloupe to Lorient. The Royal Navy later took Épervier into service under her existing name.
On the 30th of August Egyptienne captured the 16 gun Privateer Chiffonette. 26 days out of Bordeaux, and had captured a Brig from Jersey which the HMS Endymion had already recaptured. Chiffonette had been in the process of attacking another British Brig when Egyptienne approached, an attack which the French Privateer then abandoned. Fleming remarked in his report that she was an extremely fast vessel that had several times eluded British frigates, including Egyptienne herself on one occasion.
Egyptienne’s next mission was to to St Helena as escort to a convoy. On the 13th of February, 1805 Egyptienne captured the Dichoso, under the command of F. Caselins.
Egyptienne was present at the Battle of Cape Finisterre, and did not participate in the engagement, but whilst reconnoitring in advance of the fleet she captured a Danish Merchant Brig. After the battle she took the disabled Spanish 74 gun Firme in tow. Following the battle, Admiral Sir Robert Calder requested a court-martial to review his decision not to pursue the enemy fleet after the engagement, and Captain Fleming was called as one of the witnesses. The court martial ruled that Calder's failure to pursue was an error of judgment, not a manifestation of cowardice, and awarded him a severe reprimand.
In the August of that year Egyptienne came under the command of Captain Charles Elphinstone.
On the 2nd of October in that year, off Rochefort, Egyptienne captured the 16 gun French Brig-sloop Acteon, under Capitaine de frégate Depoge. Acteon had aboard a Colonel and body of recruits, as well as carrying arms and clothing for a regiment in the West Indies. The Royal Navy took Acteon into service under her own name.
In the following month Egyptienne captured several ships, the first of which on the 20th, was the 12 gun Spanish Paulina out of Pasaia Spain, on her way to cruise in the West Indies, this was followed by the French Lugger Edouard, then Maria Antoinette, under the command of J. Heget, and the French sloop Esperance.
In the December of 1805, Captain Charles Paget took command of Egyptienne until 1807, and on the 8th of March 1806 her boats cut out the privateer L’Alcide from Muros.
HMS Egyptienne in pursuit of a Spanish schooner in 1806
On the 2nd of October off Rochfort, and accompanied by Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland’s HMS Loire, she captured the 40 gun La Libre, commanded by Capitaine de Frégate Deschorches. In a fight which lasted half an hour, the French lost 20 men killed and wounded out of a crew of 280 men. Loire had no casualties but Egyptienne had 8 wounded, one of which was mortal. Libre was badly damaged and had lost her masts so Loire took her in tow and reached Plymouth with her on the 4th of January, 1807.
Fate.
Egyptienne was paid off at Plymouth and put into Ordinary on the 5th of May, 1807. Soon after she was fitted out and served as a receiving ship there. She She went back into Ordinary between1812 and 1815. On the 30th of April 1817 she was sold to John Small Sedger for £2,810 to be broken up.
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