French frigate Minerve (1794)

Last updated

Thomas Buttersworth - The frigate H.M.S. Minerve heading for the open sea.jpg
Minerve heading for the open sea at the mouth of the Tagus in 1797, by Thomas Buttersworth
History
Flag of French-Navy-Revolution.svg France
NameMinerve
BuilderToulon
Laid downJanuary 1792
Launched5 September 1794
Captured23 June 1795 by the Royal Navy
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svgGreat Britain
NameMinerve
Acquired23 June 1795
Captured3 July 1803 by the French Navy
Civil and Naval Ensign of France.svg France
NameCanonnière
Acquired3 July 1803
Renamed
  • Canonnière in August 1806
  • Confiance in June 1809
Captured3 February 1810 by the Royal Navy
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Confiance
Acquired3 February 1810
FateStruck from navy lists by 1814
General characteristics
Class and type Minerve-class frigate
Tons burthen1,1017994 (bm) [1]
Length48.4 m (158 ft 10 in)
Beam12.2 m (40 ft 0 in)
Draught5.6 m (18 ft 4 in)
Armament
  • As built: 28 × 18-pounder guns + 12 × 8-pounder guns
  • Later:28 × 18-pounder guns + 16 × 32-pounder carronades + 6 × 6-pounder guns

Minerve was a 40-gun Minerve-class frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her twice and the French recaptured her once. She therefore served under four names before being broken up in 1814:

Contents

French service as Minerve

Her keel was laid in January 1792, and Minerve was launched in 1794. On 14 December, off the island of Ivica, she captured the collier Hannibal, which was sailing from Liverpool to Naples. However, eleven days later, HMS Tartar recaptured Hannibal off Toulon and sent her into Corsica. [2]

Capture of Minerve off Toulon, by Dido and Lowestoffe, 1795 Capture of Minerve off Toulon.jpg
Capture of Minerve off Toulon, by Dido and Lowestoffe, 1795

Minerve took part in combat off Noli. At the action of 24 June 1795, she and the 36-gun Artémise engaged the frigates HMS Dido and HMS Lowestoffe. Minerve surrendered to the British, Artémise having fled, and was commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Minerve.

British service as HMS Minerve

French Revolutionary Wars

On 19 December 1796, Minerve, under the command of Captain George Cockburn, was involved in an action with HMS Blanche against the Spanish frigates Santa Sabina and Ceres. Minerve captured the Santa Sabina, which lost 164 men killed and wounded. Minerve herself lost eight killed, 38 wounded and four missing. Minerve also suffered extensive damage to her masts and rigging. Blanche went off in pursuit of Ceres. Early the next morning a Spanish frigate approached Minerve, which made ready to engage. However, two Spanish ships of the line and two more frigates approached. Skillful sailing enabled Cockburn to escape with Minerve but the Spaniards recaptured Santa Sabina and her prize crew. [3]

On the evening of 1 August 1799, at 9 P.M., Minerve's boats came alongside Peterel. Captain Francis Austen of Peterel sent these boats and his own to cut out some vessels from the Bay of Diano, near Genoa. Firing was heard at around midnight and by morning the boats returned, bringing with them a large settee carrying wine, and the Virginie, a French warship. Virginie was a Turkish-built half-galley that the French had captured at Malta the year before. She had provision for 26 oars and carried six guns. She was under the command of a lieutenant de vaisseau and had a crew of 36 men, 20 of whom had jumped overboard when the British approached, and 16 of whom the British captured. She had brought General Joubert from Toulon and was going on the next day to Genoa where Joubert was to replace General Moreau in command of the French army in Italy. [4] Minerve and Peterel shared the proceeds of the capture of Virginie with Santa Teresa and Vincejo. [5]

Then on 8 November, Minerve and the hired armed brig Louisa captured Mouche. [6]

On 15 May 1800, Minerve and the schooner Netley captured the French privateer cutter Vengeance. Vengeance was armed with 15 guns and had a crew of 132 men. [7]

In September 1801 Minerve was in the Mediterranean protecting Elba. Early on 2 September Minerve alerted Phoenix, which was anchored off Piombino, to the presence of two French frigates nearby. Phoenix and Minerve set out in pursuit and Pomone soon came up and joined them. Pomone re-captured Success, a former British 32-gun fifth-rate frigate now under the command of Monsieur Britel. (The French had captured Success in February, off Toulon.) Minerve also ran onshore the 46-gun French frigate Bravoure, which had a crew of 283 men under the command of Monsieur Dordelin. Bravoure lost her masts and was totally wrecked; she struck without a shot being fired. Minerve took off a number of prisoners, including Dordelin and his officers, in her boats. With enemy fire from the shore and with night coming on, Captain Cockburn of Minerve decided to halt the evacuation of prisoners; he therefore was unwilling to set Bravoure on fire because some of her crew remained on board. [8]

Napoleonic Wars

Shortly after war with France had resumed Minerve was in the Channel and under the command of Captain Jahleel Brenton. On 26 May 1803 she arrested the French exploration ship Naturaliste and brought her into Portsmouth, even though Naturaliste was flying a cartel flag and had passports attesting to her non-combatant character. The British released Naturliste and she arrived at Le Havre on 6 June 1803. [9]

Capture of HMS Minerve by Chiffonne and Terrible. Prise de la fregate anglaise La Minerve, Cap.e Brenton, echouee sur la digue de la rade de Cherbourg le 14 Mess.r an II, et rendue au feu des forts et des 2 canonnieres (cropped).jpg
Capture of HMS Minerve by Chiffonne and Terrible.

In the evening of 2 July, during a fog, Minerve ran aground near Cherbourg. [10] She had been pursuing some merchant vessels when she hit. The guns of Île Pelée and the gunboats Chiffonne (Captain Lécolier) and Terrible Captain Pétrée [11] immediately engaged her. [12] Minerve's crew attempted to refloat her, but the fire forced Brenton to surrender at 5:30 in the morning, [12] after she had lost 12 men killed and about 15 men wounded. [13] [14]

Brenton attributed his defeat to fire from Fort Liberté at Île Pelée, although the artillery of the fort comprised only three pieces (its other guns had been moved to the fort on the Îles Saint-Marcouf), fired at extreme range, and had ceased fire during the night; on the other hand, the gunboats fired continuously at half-range. [15]

The French took Minerve back into their service under the name Canonnière. [10]

French service as Canonnière

The Action of 21 April 1806 as depicted by Pierre-Julien Gilbert. In the foreground, HMS Tremendous aborts her attempt at raking Canonniere under the threat of being outmanoeuvred and raked herself by her more agile opponent. In the background, the Indiaman Charlton fires her parting broadside at Canonniere. In fact, several hours separated the two events. Canonniere.jpg
The Action of 21 April 1806 as depicted by Pierre-Julien Gilbert. In the foreground, HMS Tremendous aborts her attempt at raking Canonnière under the threat of being outmanoeuvred and raked herself by her more agile opponent. In the background, the Indiaman Charlton fires her parting broadside at Canonnière. In fact, several hours separated the two events.

In 1806, under Captain César-Joseph Bourayne, [16] [17] she sailed to Isle de France (now Mauritius) to reinforce the frigate squadron under admiral Linois. Failing to find Linois at Isle de France, Canonnière patrolled the Indian Ocean in the hope of making her junction. She fought an inconclusive action on 21 April against the 74-gun HMS Tremendous and the 50-gun HMS Hindostan. [18]

In late 1806, Canonnière was in Manilla, where Bourayne agreed to sail to Acapulco to claim funds on behalf of the Spanish colonies. [19] She arrived at Acapulco in April 1807 and escorted Spanish merchantmen to Luzon. She then returned to Acapulco on 20 July to load three million piastres, ferried them to Manilla, and was back in Isle de France in July 1808.

At that time, the French division of Isle de France, comprising the frigates Manche and Caroline as well as the corvette Iéna, was at sea to conduct commerce raiding. The island was blockaded by the 30-gun HMS Laurel, under Captain John Woolcombe. On 11 September, Canonnière set sail to meet Laurel and force her to retreat or fight. After a day of searching, Canonnière found Laurel and the frigates began exchanging fire around 17:00. Laurel sustained heavy damage to her rigging, hindering her ability to manoeuvers and at 19:00, a gust of wind gave advantage to Canonnière. Laurel struck her colours shortly before 20:00, and Canonnière took her prize in tow back to Port Louis. Her capture strengthened the situation of the island, as Laurel was freshly arrived, provisioned for a five-month cruise, and carried various supplies for the British squadron. [19]

Canonnière returned to Mauritius in late March 1809 . As she required repairs beyond those possible in Mauritius, the French sold her in June and she eventually sent off for France en flûte under the name Confiance.

Capture and British service as HMS Confiance

It was during this transit that HMS Valiant, under Captain John Bligh, recaptured her on 3 February 1810 near Belle Île after a six-hour chase. She was armed with only 14 guns and had a crew of 135 men, [20] under the command of Captain Jacques François Perroud. She had been 93 days in transit when she was captured, having eluded British vessels 14 times. She was carrying goods worth £150,000, [21] General Decaen having made her available to the merchants of Île de France to carry home their merchandise. [20] Amongst her passengers was César-Joseph Bourayne. [22]

Confiance then briefly re-entered the Royal Navy as HMS Confiance. She never returned to active service however, and was deleted from navy lists in 1814. [1] [23]

Citations

  1. 1 2 Winfield (2008), p. 160.
  2. Lloyd's Marine List, - accessed 1 December 2013.
  3. "No. 13986". The London Gazette . 25 February 1797. p. 200.
  4. Hubback, J. H.; Hubback, Edith C. (1906). "Chapter VI: The Patrol of the Mediterranean". Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers. London: John Lane . Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  5. "No. 15591". The London Gazette . 7 June 1803. p. 688.
  6. "No. 15710". The London Gazette . 12 June 1804. p. 731.
  7. "No. 15278". The London Gazette . 22 July 1800. pp. 842–844.
  8. "No. 15426". The London Gazette . 10 November 1801. p. 1355.
  9. Barrey (1907), pp. 51–2.
  10. 1 2 Grocott (1998), p. 152.
  11. "Bataille Navale-Combat Naval,batailles navales trafalgar".
  12. 1 2 Troude (1867), p. 288.
  13. James (1837), Vol. 3,p.27.
  14. "HMS Minerve Captain Brenton captured by the French 1803". The Newcastle Weekly Courant. 16 July 1803. p. 4.
  15. Troude (1867), p. 290.
  16. Les combats de la Canonnière
  17. Naval history of Great Britain Archived 13 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine , by William James
  18. Troude, op. cit., vol.3, p. 461.
  19. 1 2 Troude, op. cit., vol.3, p. 513
  20. 1 2 "No. 16340". The London Gazette . 6 February 1810. p. 194.
  21. James (1837), Vol. 5, p.97.
  22. Levot, Prosper (1866). Les gloires maritimes de la France: notices biographiques sur les plus célèbres marins (in French). Bertrand. p. 54.
  23. Colledge. Ships of the Royal Navy. p. 227.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Baptiste Perrée</span> 18th-century French naval officer (1761–1800)

Jean-Baptiste Perrée was a French Navy officer and Rear-admiral.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action of 3 July 1810</span> Minor naval engagement during the Napoleonic Wars

The action of 3 July 1810 was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, in which a French frigate squadron under Guy-Victor Duperré attacked and defeated a convoy of Honourable East India Company East Indiamen near the Comoros Islands. During the engagement the British convoy resisted strongly and suffered heavy casualties but two ships were eventually forced to surrender. These were the British flagship Windham, which held off the French squadron to allow the surviving ship Astell to escape, and Ceylon. The engagement was the third successful French attack on an Indian Ocean convoy in just over a year, the French frigates being part of a squadron operating from the Île de France under Commodore Jacques Hamelin.

HMS <i>Shannon</i> (1803) Frigate of the Royal Navy

The third HMS Shannon was a 36-gun Perseverance-class frigate of the British Royal Navy built at Frindsbury on the River Medway on the Thames Estuary. She was completed on 3 September 1803 during the Napoleonic Wars. Her name was changed from Pallas to Shannon shortly before construction, traditionally an omen of bad luck for a ship. In her case, she was wrecked within three months of her being launched.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Grand Port</span> 1810 naval battle between the French Navy and the British Royal Navy

The Battle of Grand Port was a naval battle between squadrons of frigates from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy. The battle was fought during 20–27 August 1810 over possession of the harbour of Grand Port on Isle de France during the Napoleonic Wars. The British squadron of four frigates sought to blockade the port to prevent its use by the French through the capture of the fortified Île de la Passe at its entrance. This position was seized by a British landing party on 13 August and, when a French squadron under Captain Guy-Victor Duperré approached the bay nine days later, the British commander, Captain Samuel Pym, decided to lure them into coastal waters where his forces could ambush them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre François Étienne Bouvet de Maisonneuve</span>

Pierre-François-Henri-Étienne Bouvet de Maisonneuve was a French Navy officer and privateer.

French frigate <i>Minerve</i> (1809)

The French frigate Minerve was originally launched in 1788 for the Portuguese Navy, where she served under the dual names of Nossa Senhora da Vitória and Minerva. The French Navy captured and renamed her in November 1809, after which she played a notable role in the Indian Ocean campaign of 1809-1811, participating in the defeat of a Royal Navy frigate squadron at the Battle of Grand Port, but at the surrender of Mauritius in December 1810, the ship was handed over to the British, and seems to have been broken up soon afterwards.

HMS <i>Dido</i> (1784) Enterprise-class Royal Navy frigate

HMS Dido was one of the twenty-seven Enterprise class of 28-gun sixth-rate frigates in service with the Royal Navy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Dido was commissioned in September 1787 under the command of Captain Charles Sandys. She participated in a notable action for which her crew would later be awarded the Naval General Service Medal; her participation in a campaign resulted in the award of another. Dido was sold for breaking up in 1817.

HMS <i>Vengeance</i> (1800) French and UK naval sailing frigate 1794–1814

HMS Vengeance was originally the 48-gun French Navy frigate Vengeance and lead ship of her class. She engaged USS Constellation during the Quasi-War, in an inconclusive engagement that left both ships heavily damaged. During the French Revolutionary Wars, HMS Seine hunted Vengeance down and captured her after a sharp action. She was recommissioned in the Royal Navy as the 38-gun fifth rate HMS Vengeance, but the British apparently never returned her to seagoing service. Accounts are divided as to her eventual fate. She may have been broken up in 1803 after grounding in 1801, or continued as a prison ship until 1814.

Ten ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Confiance:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Porto Ferrajo</span> Part of the French Revolutionary Wars

The siege of Porto Ferrajo was a French attempt to force the surrender of the Tuscan fortress town of Porto Ferrajo on the island of Elba following the French occupation of mainland Tuscany in 1801 during the French Revolutionary Wars. The Tuscan garrison was heavily outnumbered, but received significant support from British Royal Navy forces who controlled the Mediterranean Sea and ensured that supplies reached the garrison and that French supply convoys were intercepted. The French began the siege with 1,500 men in May 1801, later reinforced to more than 5,000, but could not make an impression on the fortress's defences, instead seeking to starve the defenders into submission with the support of a squadron of French Navy frigates operating off the coast.

Three ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Minerve, a French form of Minerva, a goddess in Roman mythology:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">César-Joseph Bourayne</span>

César-Joseph de Bourayne, later Baron Bourayne, was a French naval officer, famous for his battles against British ships in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. He was appointed Rear-admiral in 1814, having been made a Baron in 1811.

HMS <i>Peterel</i> (1794) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Peterel was a 16-gun Pylades-class ship-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1794 and was in active service until 1811. Her most famous action was the capture of the French brig Ligurienne when shortly after Peterel captured two merchant ships and sent them off with prize crews, three French ships attacked her. She drove two on shore and captured the largest, the 14-gun Ligurienne. The Navy converted Peterel to a receiving ship at Plymouth in 1811 and sold her in 1827.

HMS <i>Success</i> (1781) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Success was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the British Royal Navy launched in 1781, which served during the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French captured her in the Mediterranean on 13 February 1801, but she was recaptured by the British on 2 September. She continued to serve in the Mediterranean until 1811, and in North America until hulked in 1814, then serving as a prison ship and powder hulk, before being broken up in 1820.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action of 28 June 1803</span>

The action of 28 June 1803 marked the opening shots of the Blockade of Saint-Domingue after the collapse of the Treaty of Amiens and the outbreak of the War of the Third Coalition in May 1803.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action of 21 April 1806</span> Naval skirmish between Britain and France during the Napoleonic Wars

The action of 21 April 1806 was a minor engagement between a French frigate and British forces off South Africa during the Napoleonic Wars. The Île Bonaparte and Île de France constituted French outposts in the Indian Ocean, from which privateers and frigate squadrons could engage in commerce raiding and disrupt British shipping. After encountering a strongly escorted British convoy, the 40-gun Cannonière attempted to flee, but was rejoined by the 74-gun HMS Tremendous. In the ensuing battle, Captain Bourayne displayed superior sailmanship and managed to fend off his much stronger opponent by a combination of manoeuvers that rendered the batteries of Tremendous ineffective, and threatened her with sustaining raking fire. The French frigate thus managed to evade and escape.

Jean Dornal de Guy was a French naval officer.

French brig <i>Ligurienne</i> (1798)

Ligurienne was a 16-gun sectional brig of the French Navy that was launched in 1798. The British captured her in 1800, but did not take her into service.

French frigate <i>Vertu</i> (1794)

Vertu was a 40-gun French frigate designed by engineer Segondat. She served in Sercey's squadron in the Indian Ocean, and in Saint-Domingue. She was captured by the Royal Navy at the end of the Blockade of Saint-Domingue when the island surrendered to the British. After her capture the Navy sailed her to Britain but never commissioned her, and finally sold her in 1810.

The Minerve class was a type of 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, carrying 18-pounder long guns as their main armament. Six ships of this type were built at Toulon Dockyard, and launched between 1782 and 1794. The frigates served the French Navy briefly during the French Revolutionary Wars. The Royal Navy captured all six between 1793 and 1799 and took them into service, with all but one serving in the Napoleonic Wars, and some thereafter.

References