Chiffonne - The ship which Charles Adam took from the French at the Seychelles Islands
On 11 July 1801, Chiffonne, under the command of Captain Pierre Guiyesse arrived at Mahé, Seychelles from the port of St Nazaire with 33 deportees under sentence of exile from France. The exiles had been involved in the Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise against Napoleon.[2]
On 15 May, off Brazil, she captured a Portuguese schooner. Three days later she captured the Brazilian frigate Hirondelle, armed en flute. Hirondelle (or possibly Andorhina) was armed with twenty-four 24-pounder carronades and put up a short fight. Guiyesse had her guns thrown overboard, took her stores (cables, spare rigging and sails), and then released her officers and crew under parole.[2]
On 16 June, Chiffonne captured the East IndiamanBellona on her way from Bengal to London. In taking Bellone, Chiffonne had her mizzen mast crippled. A prize crew under Ensign Jean-Michel Mahé took Bellona to Mauritius where she arrived a month later.[2][3]
On 19 August HMS Sibylle, Captain Charles Adam, chased her off Mahé, Seychelles. At the time of the British attack Chiffonne was at anchor and aided her defense by constructing a battery using some of her forecastle guns and heating the shot.[2] Her captain, Commander Guiyesse, attempted to avoid capture by beaching Chiffonne, but the British captured her the next day. She had lost 23 men killed and 30 wounded; Sybille lost two men killed and one wounded.[2] She was brought into British service as HMS Chiffonne. When Adams arrived in Madras with his prize the insurance company there presented him with a sword worth guineas, while the merchants of Calcutta later too presented him with a sword and a piece of plate.[4]
British service
The British commissioned Chiffonne in 1802 in the East Indies under Captain Henry Stuart.[1] In July 1802 she carried despatches to Calcutta with the reports of the murder of the Persian ambassador Haji Khalil Khan in Bombay. She returned to England and was fitted at Woolwich in 1803. Captain Charles Adam (late of Sibylle) took command of Chiffonne on 23 May 1803 and recommissioned her for service in the North Sea and the coast of Spain, where she served from 1803 to 1807.[4]
On 5 August 1803 Chiffonne, Ethalion and Cruizer captured Flore.[5] The same three vessels shared the salvage money arising from the recapture on the same day of Margaret, Robert Lacs, master.[6]
The next day Chiffonne and Ethalion captured John, of Workington.[7] Then on 20 June Chiffonne captured Zeeluft.[8] In October Chiffonne was under the command of Captain Patrick Campbell, perhaps temporarily.[1]
On 10 June 1804, Chiffonne and consorts engaged French gunboats. Then on 20 June Chiffonne captured another Zeeluft, or at least a vessel by that name and with a different master than that of the previous year. Chiffonne was in company with Falcon, Clinker, Steady, and the hired armedcutterFrances.[9]
On 10 June 1805, Chiffonne, with Falcon, Clinker, and Frances chased a French convoy for nine hours until it took shelter under the guns of Fécamp. The convoy consisted of two corvettes (Foudre under Capitaine de vaisseau Jacques-Felix-Emmanuel Hemelin, and Audacieuse, under Lieutenant Dominique Roquebert), four large gunvessels and eight others, and 14 transports. The British suffered some casualties from gunfire from shore batteries, with Chiffonne, which had borne the brunt of the firing, losing two men killed and three wounded.[10]
In May 1806 Chiffonne was under the command of John Wainwright.[1] On 14 June Chiffonne, which had returned to Portsmouth, sailed for Cadiz, carrying General Sir John Moore and Admiral Purvis, who had raised his flag on her. At Cadiz Purvis transferred his flag to Minotaur and Chiffonne proceeded to Gibraltar. From there, on 5 July, she sailed to Messina in company with Active, Racehorse, and nineteen transports, supply vessels and merchant vessels, arriving on 7 August.[11]
At some point in early 1807, boats from Chiffonne and Sabrina cut out a brig and a schooner under the guns of a 4-gun battery on the south coast of Spain.[12]
She sailed for the East Indies in May 1808. About a year and a half later, on 13 September 1809, Chiffonne was in the port of Bombay when the ship Shah Ardaseer caught fire. Mr. Kempt, the chief officer, hailed the warships around her for help, and Wainright responded with 100 men, buckets, and an "engine". Despite their efforts, those of the crew, and those of men from the other British warships in the port, Ardaseer could not be saved.[13]
Chiffonne at the sack of Ras Al-Khaimah, the British soldiers reaching the beach, and setting fire to an Al Qasimi ship.)
Then in November, she and Caroline, together with a number of East Indiamen, participated in the campaign to suppress the strong fleets of the Al Qasimi of Ras Al Khaimah in the Persian Gulf. In an attack the British began with a cannonade of the town of Ras al Khaimah and followed with a ground attack. They destroyed some vessels, 30 of them very large dhows, together with much in the way of naval stores. Chiffonne's casualties amounted to two men wounded.[14] She and Caroline destroyed the Persian towns of Linga and Laft on Qeshm Island. Chiffonne also destroyed 20 vessels, nine of them large dhows at Linga and eleven, nine of them large dhows, at Laft. This time the resistance on shore was more intense and Chiffonne lost one man killed and 17 wounded out of total British casualties (including men from the East India Company's vessels), of two killed and 27 wounded.[15]
In January 1810 Chiffonne and Caroline carried Shenaz, which had rebelled against Sultan Sa'id of Oman and which they restored to him. Syyed Sa'id presented Wainwright with a scimitar in recognition of his efforts against the pirates. In November, Chiffonne rescued the crew of Mandarin, which had wrecked on Red Island, near Singapore.[16][17]
Fate
Chiffonne returned to Portsmouth in 1811. She was laid up there, but then repaired in 1812. In 1813 to 1814 she was in ordinary.[1]
The Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy offered "Chiffonne, of 36 guns and 945 tons", lying at Portsmouth, for sale on 11 August 1814. The buyer had to post a bond of £3,000, with two guarantors, that they would break up the vessel within a year of purchase.[18] She was sold for breaking up for £1,700 at Portsmouth on 1 September 1814.[1]
HMS Tonnant was an 80-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She had previously been Tonnant of the French Navy and the lead ship of the Tonnant class. The British captured her in August 1793 during the Siege of Toulon but the French recaptured her when the siege was broken in December. Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson captured her at Aboukir Bay off the coast of Egypt at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798. She was taken into British service as HMS Tonnant. She went on to fight at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Starr was a 16-gun Merlin-class ship sloop of the Royal Navy. She was built by Tanner, of Dartmouth, to plans by Sir William Rule, and launched in July 1805. As a sloop she served on convoy duty, though she also participated in the invasion of Martinique in early 1809. She was rebuilt as a bomb vessel in May 1812 and renamed Meteor. As Meteor she served in the Baltic and then off the United States, participating in attacks on up the Potomac and on Baltimore and New Orleans. She was sold in October 1816.
HMS Daring was a 12-gun gun-brig of the Archer class of the British Royal Navy. She was launched in 1804 and served in the Channel and North Sea, capturing a number of merchant vessels. In 1813 she was serving on the West Africa Station when her crew had to scuttle her to prevent her capture.
Franchise was launched in 1798 as a 40-gun Coquille-class frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1803 and took her into the Royal Navy under her existing name. In the war on commerce during the Napoleonic Wars she was more protector than prize-taker, capturing many small privateers but few commercial prizes. She was also at the battle of Copenhagen. She was broken up in 1815.
HMS Herald was an 18-gun ship-sloop of the Cormorant class in the Royal Navy, launched in 1806 at Littlehampton. In 1810 she was reclassed as a 20-gun sixth rate ship, and again re-rated as 24 guns in 1817, just before she was broken up.
HMS Manly was a 12-gun Bold-class gun-brig of the Royal Navy, launched in 1812. She served in the War of 1812, her boats participating in the Battle of Lake Borgne. She was sold in 1833.
HMS Favourite was a 16-gun Cormorant-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Rotherhithe. The French captured her in 1806 and renamed her Favorite. However, the British recaptured her in 1807 and renamed her HMS Goree. She became a prison ship in 1810 and was broken up in Bermuda in 1817.
Palinure was the nameship for the Palinure-class of 16-gun brigs of the French Navy, and was launched in 1804. In French service she captured Carnation before Circe captured her in turn. After being taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Snap, she participated in two campaigns that qualified her crew for the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She was broken up in 1811.
HMS Mosambique was the French privateer schooner Mosambique, built in 1798, and commissioned as a privateer in 1804. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1804 and took her into service. She served in the West Indies, engaging in several indecisive single-ship actions before she captured one French privateer. She was sold there in 1810.
The French frigate Alcmène was an Armide-class frigate of a nominal 44 guns, launched in 1811. The British captured her on 1814. The Royal Navy named her HMS Dunira, and then renamed her HMS Immortalite but never commissioned her nor fitted her for sea. In March 1822 she became a receiving ship at Portsmouth. She was sold in January 1837.
HMS Scylla was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. The first to bear the name Scylla, she was launched in 1809 and broken up in 1846.
HMS Undaunted was a Lively-class fifth-rate 38-gun sailing frigate of the British Royal Navy, built during the Napoleonic Wars, which conveyed Napoleon to his first exile on the island of Elba in early 1814.
HMS Moselle was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1804. She served during the Napoleonic Wars in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and the North American station. She was sold in 1815.
HMS Rover was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop laid down in 1804 but not launched until 1808. She served in the North Sea, off the north coast of Spain, in the Channel, and on the North American station. She captured two letters-of-marque and numerous merchant vessels before being laid-up in 1815. She then sat unused until she was sold in 1828. She became a whaler that made four voyages to the British southern whale fishery between 1830 and 1848. She was last listed in 1848.
The Battle of Mahé was a minor naval engagement of the last year of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought on 19 August 1801 in the harbour of Mahé in the Seychelles, a French colony in the Indian Ocean. Since the demise of the French Indian Ocean squadron in 1799, the Royal Navy had maintained dominance in the East Indies, controlling the shipping routes along which trade flowed and allowing the rapid movement of military forces around the theatre. French First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte had long-harboured ambitions of threatening British India, and in 1798 had launched an invasion of Egypt as an initial step to achieving this goal. The campaign had failed, and the French army in Egypt was under severe pressure by early 1801, partly due to the presence of a British squadron acting with impunity in the Red Sea.
Robert was a 16-gun French privateer corvette launched in 1793 at Nantes. The British captured her in 1793 and named her HMS Espion. The French recaptured her in 1794 and took her into service as Espion. The British recaptured her in 1795, but there being another Espion in service by then, the British renamed their capture HMS Spy. She served under that name until the Navy sold her in 1801. Spy then became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people, a merchantman to South America, and privateer again. The French captured her in mid-1805 and sent her into Guadeloupe.
Two vessels named His Majesty's hired armed lugger Sandwich served the British Royal Navy, one during the French Revolutionary Wars, and the other during the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Challenger was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched at Redbridge, Southampton, in 1813. She participated in the capture of a French privateer and then sailed to the East Indies. She was laid up in 1819 and sold in 1824.
The French frigate Weser, or Wezer was a Pallas-class 44-gun frigate of the French Navy launched in 1812 in Amsterdam. The British Royal Navy captured her on 21 October 1813. As HMS Weser she served in North American waters and then was sold for breaking up in September 1817.
HMS Albacore was launched in 1804 in Bristol. She participated in two notable actions. The British Royal Navy sold her in 1815 and she became a merchantman, sailing out of Guernsey. She was lost on 12 October 1821 while sailing from Buenos Aires to Barbados.
References
Conolly, Mathew Forster (1868). Biographical dictionary of eminent men of Fife of past and present times: natives of the county, or connected with it by property, residence, office, marriage, or otherwise. Inglis & Jack.
Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN0-948864-30-3.
Moore, Sir John (1804). The diary of Sir John Moore. Vol.2. E. Arnold.
Quintin, Danielle; Quintin, Bernard (2003). Dictionnaire des capitaines de Vaisseau de Napoléon (in French). S.P.M. ISBN2-901952-42-9.
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
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