Abondance (1780 ship)

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ABONDANCE FL.1781 (FRENCH) RMG J6830.png
Abondance
History
Flag of the Kingdom of France (1814-1830).svg France
NameAbondance
NamesakeAbundance
BuilderJean-Joseph Ginoux, Le Havre
Laid downJanuary 1780
Launched16 September 1780
Captured12 December 1781
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg Great Britain
NameHMS Abondance
Acquired12 December 1781 by capture
FateSold 1784
British-Red-Ensign-1707.svg Great Britain
NameAbondance
Acquired1784 by purchase
FateNo longer listed in 1786
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeBaleine-class gabare
Tons burthen524, or 5265094, or 600 (bm)
Length
  • Overall:132 ft 6 in (40.4 m)
  • Keel:113 ft 11+78 in (34.7 m)
Beam29 ft 5+34 in (9.0 m)
Depth of hold11 ft 9 in (3.6 m)
Propulsion Sails
Complement
  • French service: 90
  • UK
    • Transport:200
  • Storeship:52
Armament
  • French service: 20 × 8-pounder guns [2]
  • British service:
    • Troopship: 24 × 9-pounder + 4 × 4-pounder guns
    • Storeship: 14 guns

Abondance was a French Baleine-class gabare (cargo ship) launched in 1780. The Royal Navy captured her on 11 December 1781 and took her into service as a troop transport and store ship under the name HMS Abondance. After the end of the war with France the Admiralty sold her in 1784. She then became a merchantman.

Contents

Career

Abondance was launched at Le Havre in September 1780. [3] She sailed on 11 December 1781 for the Antilles in a convoy under the command of Admiral de Guichen. She was under the command of a M. Dupuis and was carrying 248 soldiers and ordnance, stores, and provisions. [4]

On the 12th Admiral Kempenfelt, who had been sent out by the Admiralty with an unduly weak force to intercept de Guichen, sighted the French convoy in the Bay of Biscay through a temporary clearance in a fog, at a moment when de Guichen's warships were to leeward of the convoy, and attacked the transports at once. de Guichen could not prevent the British from capturing 15 of the transports, Abondance among them, destroying two or three others, and driving the remainder into a panic-stricken flight. The survivors returned to port; de Guichen therefore returned to port also.

The Royal Navy sent Abondance into Plymouth and then took her into service, rating her as a 28-gun sixth rate. Lieutenant N. Phillips commissioned her in April 1783 and on 23 May sailed for North America. [1] She made several trips carrying black loyalists to Halifax, among them the fiery Methodist preacher Moses Wilkinson. In November, she evacuated the last group, some 80 members of the Black Brigade, a unit of black loyalists, from New York. [5]

Disposal: Phillips paid off Abondance in March 1784. The Admiralty then sold her for £2,200 on 29 April. [1]

Abondance entered Lloyd's Register in 1784 with T. Eve, master, L. Teffier, owner, and trade London–Ostend. [6] She was no longer listed in 1786.

Citations

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References

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