French service and capture
Amarante was the name ship of a two-vessel class of 12-gun brigs built to a design by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait. She was also the first vessel that Joseph-Augustin Normand built at Honfleur for the French Navy.
Between February 1794 and December, she was under the command of enseigne de vaisseau Jacques-Philippe Delamare and escorted convoys from to Le Havre to Brest. [3] Between February 1795 and May, she escorted convoys between Saint-Malo and Dieppe, and performed fisheries protection duties for the Dieppoise fishermen. [4] She then protected the herring fisheries in the Channel.
Delamare was suspended in 1798 as a terrorist by order of the representative of the people Boissier. He was reinstated some months later and sent to Brest. A decree of the Public Safety Committee, dated 22 September, confirmed him in command of Amarante.
On 1 March 1797 Amarante was at La Hogue roads undergoing repairs. [6]
HMS Diamond captured Amarante off Alderney on 31 December 1796. The letter in the London Gazette describes her as a brig of twelve 6-pounder guns, and nine men. She was sailing from Le Havre to Brest. [7] She had no casualties.
British service
Amarante arrived at Portsmouth on 2 January 1797. In August 1797 the Royal Navy commissioned her as Amaranthe under Commander Francis Vesey, and she then underwent fitting until February 1798.
Vesey sailed her for Jamaica in July 1798. However, on 29 August, she and Endymion recaptured the British East India Company "extra ship" Britannia, Stewart, master. [8] Britannia had been sailing from Bengal to London when the French privateer Huron captured her. [9]
In November, Surprise and Amaranthe captured the French 4-gun privateer Petite Française. [10]
On 13 April 1799 Amaranthe captured the French letter of marque schooner Vengeur after a long chase and sharp fight. Vengeur had only six 4-pounder guns, half Anmaranthe's armament, but resisted fiercely for an hour and eight minutes. French casualties were 14 killed and 5 wounded (one of whom died later and another of whom was expected to die), out of 36 crew and passengers on board; British casualties were one man killed and four wounded. Vengeur had been carrying a cargo of flour from Santiago de Cuba to Jérémie, Haiti. She had been a privateer on her previous cruise, and Vesey described her as a "very fine Copper-bottomed Schooner, capable of mounting Ten Carriage Guns, nearly new, and fails uncommonly fast". [11]
Vesey received promotion to post captain on 16 September.Template:Marshall Commander George Blake then replaced Vesey as captain of Amaranthe.
HMS Indefatigable was one of the Ardent class 64-gun third-rate ships-of-the-line designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1761 for the Royal Navy. She was built as a ship-of-the-line, but most of her active service took place after her conversion to a 44-gun razee frigate. She had a long career under several distinguished commanders, serving throughout the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She took some 27 prizes, alone or in company, and the Admiralty authorised the issue of four clasps to the Naval General Service Medal in 1847 to any surviving members of her crews from the respective actions. She was broken up in 1816.
HMS Babet was a 20-gun sixth-rate post ship of the British 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 1800, presumably having foundered.
Révolutionnaire, was a 40-gun Seine-class frigate of the French Navy, launched in May 1794. The British captured her in October 1794 and she went on to serve with the Royal Navy until she was broken up in 1822. During this service Revolutionnaire took part in numerous actions, including three for which the Admiralty would in 1847 award clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, and captured several privateers and merchant vessels.
Mutine was an 18-gun Belliqueuse-class gun-brig of the French Navy, built to a design by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait, and launched in 1794 at Honfleur. She took part in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where the British captured her. She was recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Mutine, and eventually sold in 1803.
Aventurier, was a 16-gun brig of the French Navy. She was launched in 1793 and the Royal Navy captured her in 1798. The British named her HMS Aventurier and disposed of her in 1802.
His Majesty's Hired armed lugger Duke of York served the Royal Navy from 14 October 1794 to 2 January 1799 when she foundered in the North Sea. She was of 57 44/94 tons burthen (bm) and was armed with eight 4-pounder guns.
HMS Charlotte was a mercantile schooner that Royal Navy hired or chartered in 1796, purchased in 1797 and commissioned in 1798. In her brief military career in the Caribbean she captured two small enemy privateers before she herself fell prey to a French privateer. The British recaptured her a little more than a year later but then broke her up in 1799 rather than recommissioning her.
Perdrix was a corvette of the French Royal Navy, launched in 1784. The British captured her off Antigua in 1795 and she served briefly in the Royal Navy in the West Indies, where she captured a French privateer, before being broken up in 1798.
Etna was a French naval Etna-class ship-sloop launched in 1795 that the Royal Navy captured in November 1796. She was taken into service as HMS Aetna and renamed to HMS Cormorant the next year. She captured several merchant vessels and privateers before she was wrecked in 1800 off the coast of Egypt.
HMS Clyde was a Royal Navy Artois-class frigate built at Chatham Dockyard of fir, and launched in 1796. In 1797, she was one of only two ships whose captains were able to maintain some control over their vessels during the Nore mutiny. In 1805, HMS Clyde was dismantled and rebuilt at Woolwich Dockyard; she was relaunched on 23 February 1806. She was ultimately sold in August 1814.
Salamine was originally the Spanish Navy's Infante 18-gun brig, built in 1787 at Cadiz. The French Navy captured her at Toulon in December 1793 and recommissioned her; they renamed her on 10 May 1798 as Salamine, for the battle of Salamis. On 18 June 1799, HMS Emerald captured her and she was brought into Royal Navy service as HMS Salamine. She served briefly in the Mediterranean, where she captured two French privateers and several merchant vessels before the Royal Navy sold her at Malta in 1802, after the Treaty of Amiens ended the war with France.
The French corvette Robuste was a vessel built at Nantes as a slaver that made her first and only slave-trading voyage in 1789-90. The French navy purchased her in December 1793 and she served as a 22-gun corvette in the Channel. The British captured her in 1796 and took her into the Royal Navy as HMS Scourge. She captured a number of French privateers, primarily in the West Indies, before the navy sold her in 1802.
Brave, launched at Le Havre in 1793, was the name vessel of a two-vessel class of brig-rigged canonnières, i.e., gun-brigs. The French Navy renamed her Arrogante in May 1795. The Royal Navy captured her on 23 or 24 April 1798. The British Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Arrogante, but renamed her HMS Insolent some four months later. She was sold in June 1818.
The French brig Suffisante was launched in 1793 for the French Navy. In 1795 the Royal Navy captured her and took her into service under her existing name. HMS Suffisante captured seven privateers during her career, as well as recapturing some British merchantmen and capturing a number of prizes, some of them valuable. She was lost in December 1803 when she grounded in poor weather in Cork harbour.
HMS Barbuda was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1780 after having briefly served as an American privateer. Barbuda was one of the two sloops that captured Demerara and Essequibo in 1781, but the French Navy captured her there in 1782 and took her into service as Barboude. The French Navy sold her to private owners in 1786, and she served briefly as a privateer in early 1793 before the French Navy purchased her again and named her Légère. She served them until mid-1796 when the Royal Navy captured her and took her into service as HMS Legere. She was wrecked off the coast of Colombia, without loss of life, in February 1801.
Jalouse was an 18-gun Belliqueuse-class brig-corvette of the French Navy, built to a design by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait, and launched in 1794 at Honfleur. The Royal Navy captured her in May 1797 and took her into service under her existing name. In British service she served primarily on the North Sea station where she captured three small French privateers, and many Dutch merchant vessels. She also participated with other British warships in two or three major cutting-out expeditions. She was broken up in 1807.
Belliquese was a French Navy 12-gun brig launched in 1793 as the name-vessel of her class, and sold in 1797 to serve as a privateer. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1798. Though the Royal Navy named her HMS Bellete and took her measurements, it never actually commissioned her; she was sold in 1801.
Numerous French privateers have borne the name Vengeur ("Avenger"):
HMS Matilda was the French corvette Jacobine, which was launched in March 1794 and which the British captured in the West Indies seven months later. Matilda served in the West Indies until 1799, capturing six small privateers. In 1799 she sailed to Woolwich where she became a hospital ship. Between 1805 and 1807 she was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Henry Stanhope. She was broken up in 1810.
HM hired armed cutter Flora served the British Royal Navy under contract from 16 August 1794 until a French privateer captured her on 1 December 1798.
France
Great Britain 
