Franchise was launched in 1798 as a 40-gun Coquille-classfrigate 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.
She was part of a squadron of three frigates, Concorde under Commodore Jean-François Landolphe, Médée under Captain Jean-Daniel Coudin, and Franchise under Captain Pierre Jurien, with Landolphe as the overall commander, that left Rochefort on 6 March 1799. Eluding the British blockade off Rochefort, the squadron sailed southwards until it reached the coast of West Africa. There Landolphe's ships began an extended commerce raiding operation, inflicting severe damage on the West African trade for the rest of the year. During this time, the squadron captured the Portuguese island of Prince (Príncipe).[1] Eventually the strain of serving in tropical waters told on the ships and all three were forced to undergo an extensive refit in the nearest available allied shipyards, which were located in the Spanish-held River Plate in South America. At Montevideo the squadron assisted the French prisoners that had captured and taken into that port the convict transport Lady Shore, which was carrying them to Australia.
Repairs continued for six months, until Landolphe considered the squadron once again ready to sail in the early summer of 1800. The squadron almost immediately captured off the coast of Brazil the American schooner Espérance (Hope), which they used as an aviso and sent to Cayenne with a prize crew under the command of enseigne de vaisseau Hamon.[1] (At the time, France and the United States had been engaged for two years in the Quasi War.)
During the action of 4 August 1800, off Rio de Janeiro, HMSBelliqueux captured Concorde and Landolphe, and the East IndiamenExeter and Bombay Castle captured Médée. On 9 August Franchise encountered the merchantman Wellesley, which was on her way to the Cape, but after an engagement of about an hour, the British ship succeeded in driving off her attacker.[2]Franchise followed Wellesley for two days but then gave up the chase;[2] On 7 September, 1800 she captured and burned American ship "Pacific" (37°06′N43°06′W / 37.100°N 43.100°W / 37.100; -43.100),[3] "Rambler" on an unknown date and location, and "Russell" on 10 September (39°00′N39°00′W / 39.000°N 39.000°W / 39.000; -39.000).[4]Franchise managed to return to France, running back through the British blockade.
On 28 May 1803 HMS Minotaur, in company with Thunderer, and later joined by Albion, captured Franchise. Franchise was 33 days out of Port-au-Prince; of the sixteen 9-pounders on her quarterdeck and forecastle, ten were in her hold. She had a crew of 187 men under the command of Captain Jurien.[a]
From June to mid-October Franchise was in Plymouth being fitted. She was commissioned in November under Captain Lord John Murray. He then sailed her to the Leeward Islands on 26 February 1804.[13]
On 26 March 1804, Franchise was with a convoy when she sighted a schooner. Dacres ordered Murray to pursue the schooner. By evening Franchise had captured the privateer Petite Harmonie, which was under the command of Citizen Guerel. She was armed with two 4-pounder guns and had a crew of 22 men. Dacres had her destroyed.[14]
Later, Franchise recaptured the schooners Vulture and Polly, and destroyed the privateer schooner Pauline.[15] On 10 June, Franchise captured Harmony.[16]
Then on 13 September, Franchise chased a privateer schooner for eight hours before capturing her. The privateer was Uranie, of three guns and 64 men. She was 13 days out of the city of Santo Domingo but had taken no prizes. Murray reported that "[she] is supposed to be the fastest, sailing Vessel in those Seas."[17] Lastly, on 24 December, Franchise was in company with Pelican when they captured Nostra Senora del Belin.[18]
Franchise was off Curaçao on 24 April 1805 when she sighted a schooner that anchored under the guns of the fort of Port Maria. Franchise sailed in and fired on the schooner and the fort before she could cut her out. The schooner turned out to be a tender to the Dutch frigate Kenau Hasselar.[b] The schooner had a crew of a lieutenant and 35 men, but a number escaped ashore, leaving behind 24 of their wounded compatriots, as well as the surgeon and the lieutenant. Franchise had one man seriously wounded and two men slightly wounded.[19] The schooner was carrying lumber and rice.[20]
On 6 May, Franchise and Elk captured Hazard.[21] Two days later, Fortunee captured the sloop Sally. Franchise was among the vessels that shared in the prize money.[22] Ten days after that, Franchise and Elk captured Globe.[23]
Murray died suddenly aboard ship on 13 July 1805 and Captain Randall M'Donnell replaced him.[13] M'Donnell was captain when on 24 October, Franchise captured Washington.[24] Later that month, Franchise's boats captured the Spanish privateer feluccaGeneral Ferrand on 25 October. General Ferrand was armed with one 6-pounder gun, two 4-pounders, swivel guns, and small arms. She was four days out of "Saint Jago" (probably Santiago de Cuba), and had taken no prizes.[25]
Capture of Raposa
In January 1806 Franchise was under the command of Captain Charles Dashwood.[c] He received information that several Spanish vessels had anchored in the Bay of Campeche and he determined to try to cut them out. On the night of 6 January Franchise arrived some five leagues off the town of Campeche and Dashwood had her anchor in four fathoms as the water was too shallow to come any closer. He then sent in three of Franchise's boats under the command of Lieutenants John Fleming and Peter Douglas, his first and third lieutenants, and Lieutenant Mends of the Marines. Because of the distance they had to row, the British were unable to approach closely until 4am, by which time the moon had risen, they had been spotted, and the Spaniards alerted. The Spanish vessels consisted of two naval brigs, one of 20 guns and 180 men, and another of 12 guns and 90 men, a schooner armed with eight guns, and seven gunboats, each armed with two guns. They opened fire on the approaching row boats and might have destroyed the attack had Lieutenant Fleming not led his three boats to the smaller of the brigs and boarded her. After about ten minutes of hand-to-hand fighting, the British had captured her and were sailing her out, pursued by the other Spanish vessels, which continued to fire on them. The British returned fire from their prize and their boats and the Spanish vessels withdrew.[27]
The captured vessel turned out to be the brig Raposa, pierced for 16 guns but mounting only 12, and also carrying some coehorns, swivel guns, and small arms. She had a crew of 90 men, but her captain, Don Joaquin de la Cheva and most of his officers were ashore, with the result that there were only 75 men on aboard. The Spanish suffered five men killed, not including some who drowned when they jumped overboard, and the senior officer on board and 25 men wounded, many mortally. The British had only seven men wounded. Dashwood sent all the Spanish wounded and prisoners ashore under a flag of truce as they could receive better care there.[27] The British took the corvette into service as HMSRaposa. The Lloyd's Patriotic Fund presented each of the three lieutenants with a sword worth £50, and Midshipman Lamb with a sword worth £30.[28][d]
Franchise captured the Spanish garda costaschoonerCarmen, of one gun and 34 men, on 11 June.[29][30][e] Eight days later Franchise also captured the Dutch schooner Brutus, of 20 men.[29][30] Douglas served in the boats at the capture of Carmen, and on board that ship he succeeded in making two prizes, and in driving an armed vessel on shore. In December 1807 prize money was announced for "Proceeds of a Quantity of Cocoa, captured in sundry small Spanish Vessels, Names unknown, on the 19th of June."[30]
Hurricane
In July Veteran, Franchise, and Magicienne were escorting a convoy of 109 West Indiamen back to England. The convoy had cleared the Gulf of Florida when it encountered a hurricane. Twenty merchantmen foundered and Magicienne was so damaged that she could not proceed and instead had to put into Bermuda for repairs. Franchise had lost her fore mast and main-top-mast but Dashwood was still able to rally the surviving merchantmen and bring them back to England.[32]
By mid-summer 1807 Franchise had returned to England.[13] She then sailed to the Baltic where she took part in the Battle of Copenhagen.[f]
By early 1808 Franchise was back in the Channel, still under Dashwood's command. He sailed her for the West Indies on 21 February. Two days later she was 12 leagues south of the Isles of Scilly when she sighted a French lugger privateer hovering around the convoy that Franchise was escorting. The privateer, on capture, turned out to be Hazard, of four guns and a crew of 50, under the command of Francois Blanchet. Hazard was three days out of Granville, Manche, and had not captured anything.[34][g]Franchise shared the head money with Star.
On 10 November 1808, Franchise, Reindeer, Aurora, Daedalus, and Pert met by chance. The captains got together and decided to capture the town and port of Samaná in order to assist the Spanish patriots that had established a blockade of San Domingo. The town was also the last port of refuge for privateers to the windward of San Domingo and the enemy were in the act of erecting batteries for its protection. The British entered the following day and took possession of the harbour. Captain Charles Dashwood handed Samana over to a Spanish officer, Don Diego de Lira, who guaranteed the safety of the French inhabitants on their plantations.[36]
During the following week the British captured two French 5-gun privateer schooners. One was the Guerrière, Louis Telin, master, with a crew of 104 men; the other was the Exchange, with a crew of 110. The British also took three merchant vessels, the schooner Diana and a brig, both laden with fish, and the sloop Brutus, laden with coffee.[36]Reindeer and Pert went on to recapture two vessels, one of them English, that privateers had taken and were trying to bring into Samana.[36]
Early the next year, on 16 January 1809, Franchise captured the French letter of marqueIphigenie after a chase of 30 hours. She was pierced for 18 guns but only carrying six, all of which, together with her anchors, she had thrown overboard during the chase. She and her crew of 26 were sailing from Bayonne, where she had been launched two months earlier, to Guadeloupe with a cargo of naval stores and provisions, with the intent of taking up privateering once in the West Indies. Dashwood, in the hope that the navy might buy her, described Iphigenie as "... coppered, and sails remarkably fast, having been pursued several Times during her Passage".[37][h]
Sinking of the transport John & Jane
Captain John Allen was appointed to replace Dashwood on 17 February 1809. Allen sailed Franchise to Newfoundland on 18 May 1810. On 9 February 1811 Allen sailed her for the Mediterranean.[39]
It was on the way to the Mediterranean on 21 February that a great tragedy occurred. Franchise and her convoy were in Falmouth Roads on a stormy night when she ran into the transport John & Jane, under the command of Captain Grimbsy, almost cutting John & Jane in two. The conditions were too severe to launch boats and the damage to the transport was so complete that almost all aboard her drowned. She was carrying elements of the 11th Regiment of Foot, 197 of whom died, as did 15 women, six children, and six seamen; 20 soldiers and eight seamen survived. Franchise had signaled that she was about to tack and had John & Jane responded with lights the accident might have been averted. Franchise herself suffered little damage and no casualties.[40]
On 1 August 1811 Allen transferred to Rodney.[39] His replacement was Captain Robert Buck.[13]
In 1812 Franchise was still in the Mediterranean. On 2 February she was in the bay of Cagliari where she captured the French privateer Aventurier (or Venturier), pierced for 14 guns but only mounting three. She and her crew of 60 men were 26 days out of Marseilles but had not captured anything.[41]
Captain Thomas Usher replaced Buck in June.[13] On 26 September, Blake and Franchise provided naval support to a land attack, at night, on Tarragona by troops under the command of General Joaquín Ibáñez Cuevas, Baron d'Eroles. The attack was successful, and resulted, inter alia, in the capture of several small vessels. The Spanish troops suffered three men killed and eight wounded; the British had no casualties whatsoever. Captain Edward Codrington, of Blake, wrote to Baron d'Eroles and to Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, that the officers and crew declined any prize money from the action, in favour of the Spanish troops, "in admiration of the valour and the discipline which they shewed upon the occasion."[42]
Fate
Franchise was in ordinary at Woolwich in 1815.[13] She was put up for sale at Deptford in January of that year.[43] Anyone wishing to purchase her had to put up a bond of two sureties, for £3000, not to sell or otherwise dispose of the ship. To regain their sureties the purchaser had to break her up within twelve months from the day of sale.[44]
Notes
↑ The original notice in the London Gazette gave the frigate's name as Françoise.[5] The next edition corrected the name to Franchise.[6]
↑ On 1 January 1807 the British captured Curaçao. There they captured Kenau Hasselar, which they took into service, and the sloop Suriname, which was a former British sloop, as well as a number of other vessels.
↑ Winfield implies that M'Donnell was still captain,[13] and the National Maritime Museum's database has the same information.[26] Unfortunately, they are clearly wrong.
↑ Lieutenant Fleming commissioned the schooner Bramble in Bermuda in June 1808.
↑ A first-class share of the head money for the 34 men was worth £48 8s 2¼d; a sixth-class share was worth 2s 6d.[31]
↑ A petty officer's share of the prize money for the capture of the Danish fleet was £22 11s; a seaman's share was £3 8s.[33]
↑ Prize money was paid in February 1815. A first-class share was worth £36 14s 6¼d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 2s 11½d.[35]
↑ It is believed that the Royal Navy did buy her, but there is no record of her service. Winfield provides a date of capture for an Iphigenie on 28 November 1808.[38]
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HMS Naiad was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served in the Napoleonic Wars. She was built by Hall and Co. at Limehouse on the Thames, launched in 1797, and commissioned in 1798. She served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and her last actions occurred in 1824–5. She was paid off in 1826. She then served for many years in Latin America as a coal depot, first for the Royal Navy and then for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. She was broken up in 1898, 101 years after her launching.
Heureux was a 22-gun French privateer brig that the British captured in 1800. She served with the Royal Navy as the 22-gun post ship HMS Heureux. She captured numerous French and Spanish privateers and merchant vessels in the Caribbean Sea before she was lost at sea in 1806. Her fate remains a mystery to this day.
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.
HMS Reindeer was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, built by Samuel & Daniel Brent at Rotherhithe and was launched in 1804. She was built of fir, which made for more rapid construction at the expense of durability. Reindeer fought in the Napoleonic Wars before succumbing in 1814 to the guns of USS Wasp during the War of 1812.
HMS Cerberus was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars in the Channel, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and even briefly in the Baltic against the Russians. She participated in one boat action that won for her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She also captured many privateers and merchant vessels. Her biggest battle was the Battle of Lissa, which won for her crew another clasp to the NGSM. She was sold in 1814.
HMS Spitfire was a Tisiphone-class fireship of the Royal Navy. She served during the years of peace following the end of the American War of Independence, and by the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, had been reclassified as a 14-gun sloop-of-war. Spitfire went on to serve under a number of notable commanders during a successful career that saw her capture a considerable number of French privateers and small naval vessels. She spent most of her career in Home waters, though during the later part of her life she sailed further afield, to the British stations in North America and West Africa. She survived the Napoleonic Wars and was eventually sold in 1825 after a period spent laid up.
HMS Lark was a 16-gun ship sloop of the Cormorant class, launched in 1794 at Northfleet. She served primarily in the Caribbean, where she took a number of prizes, some after quite intensive action. Lark foundered off San Domingo in August 1809, with the loss of her captain and almost all her crew.
HMS Curieux was a French corvette launched in September 1800 at Saint-Malo to a design by François Pestel, and carrying sixteen 6-pounder guns. She was commissioned under Capitaine de frégate Joseph-Marie-Emmanuel Cordier. The British captured her in 1804 in a cutting-out action at Martinique. In her five-year British career Curieux captured several French privateers and engaged in two notable single-ship actions, also against privateers. In the first she captured Dame Ernouf; in the second, she took heavy casualties in an indecisive action with Revanche. In 1809 Curieux hit a rock; all her crew were saved but they had to set fire to her to prevent her recapture.
HMS Elk was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built of pine, and launched in 1804. She served on the Jamaica station where she captured a number of privateers. She was broken up in 1812.
HMS Entreprenante was a 10-gun cutter that the Royal Navy captured from the French in 1798. The British commissioned her in 1799 and she served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, participating in the Battle of Trafalgar. She has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name. She took part in several small engagements, capturing Spanish and French ships before she was sold in 1812 for breaking up.
HMS Nemesis was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The French captured her in 1795 at Smyrna, but in 1796 a squadron led by Barfleur brought her out of the neutral port of Tunis. Throughout her career she served under a number of commanders who would go on to have distinguished careers. She was converted to a troopship in 1812 and was sold in 1814.
HMS Guachapin was a brig, the former Spanish letter of marque Guachapin, launched at Bayonne in 1800, which the British captured early in 1800 and took into service with the Royal Navy. Under the British flag she captured a Spanish privateer larger and better-armed than herself. She also served at the captures of the islands of St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Tobago, and St. Lucia, and of Surinam. She served at Antigua as a guard ship but was wrecked in 1811. She was then salvaged and sold.
HMS Cambrian was a Royal Navy 40-gun fifth-rate frigate. She was built and launched at Bursledon in 1797 and served in the English Channel, off North America, and in the Mediterranean. She was briefly flagship of both Admiral Mark Milbanke and Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell during her career, and was present at the Battle of Navarino. Cambrian was wrecked off the coast of Grabusa in 1828.
HMS Raposa was the Spanish brig Raposa, launched in 1804. A cutting out expedition in 1806 by boats from HMS Franchise in the western Caribbean captured her. The Royal Navy subsequently took her into service under her existing name. Raposa served in the Caribbean, repeatedly recapturing merchant ships that had fallen victim to French privateers. Thirteen months after being captured she ran aground while pursuing enemy ships. When they were unable to refloat Raposa, her crew set fire to her to avoid her capture, destroying her.
HMS Netley was launched in 1798 with an experimental design. During the French Revolutionary Wars she spent some years on the Oporto station, where she captured many small privateers. The French captured her in 1806, early in the Napoleonic Wars. They lengthened her and she became the 17-gun privateer Duquesne. In 1807 the British recaptured her and the Royal Navy returned her to service as the 12-gun gun-brig HMS Unique. She was expended in an unsuccessful fire ship attack at Guadeloupe in 1809.
The French corvette Bacchante was launched in 1795 as one of the four Serpente-class corvettes built for the French Navy. She served for almost two years as a privateer, before returning to the service of the French Navy. After HMS Endymion captured her in 1803, the Royal Navy took her in under her existing name as a 20-gun post ship. Bacchante served in the West Indies, where she captured several armed Spanish and French vessels before the Navy sold her in 1809.
The French corvette Robuste was a vessel built at Nantes in 1789 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.
HMS Pert was the French privateer Bonaparte, a ship built in the United States that HMS Cyane captured in November 1804. The Royal Navy took Bonaparte into service as HMS Pert. Pert was wrecked off the coast of what is now Venezuela in October 1807.
HMS Echo, launched in 1797 at Dover, was a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy. She served on the Jamaica station between 1799 and 1806, and there captured a small number of privateers. The Navy sold her in 1809 and she became a whaler. She made four complete whale-hunting voyages but was wrecked in the Coral Sea in April 1820 during her fifth whaling voyage.
References
Fonds Marine. Campagnes (opérations; divisions et stations navales; missions diverses). Inventaire de la sous-série Marine BB4. Tome premier: BB4 1 à 209 (1790-1804)
Grant, James (1803) The narrative of a voyage of discovery: Performed in the years 1800, 1801 and 1802 to New South Wales... (Egerton).
Long, William H. (1895). Medals of the British navy and how they were won: with a list of those officers, who for their gallant conduct were granted honorary swords and plate by the Committee of the Patriotic Fund. London: Norie & Wilson.
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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