 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
  France | |
| Name | Prudente |
| Namesake | Prudency |
| Builder | Lorient |
| Laid down | May 1789 |
| Launched | 21 September 1790 |
| In service | October 1790 |
| Captured | 9 February 1799 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Capricieuse-class frigate |
| Displacement | 600 tonnes |
| Length | 44.2 m (145 ft 0 in) |
| Beam | 11.2 m (36 ft 9 in) |
| Draught | 5.5 m (18 ft 1 in) |
| Propulsion | Sail |
| Armament | 32 guns |
Prudente was a 32-gun Capricieuse-class frigate of the French Navy.
In 1791, under lieutenant Villaret de Joyeuse, she was tasked with ferrying troops to Cap-Français and with police duty in Santo Domingo. In 1793, she returned to France, escorting a convoy from Terre-Neuve, under Villaret de Joyeuse, by then promoted to Captain.
In 1794, she was the flagship of a frigate division under Captain Renaud, also comprising Cybèle, under Pierre Julien Tréhouart. She took part in the Sunda Strait campaign of January 1794 and in the action of 22 October 1794 off Ile de France. During the Sunda Strait campaign the squadron captured the East Indiaman Pigot.
In 1796, Prudente was attached to the squadron under Sercey, that had come from France.
She served for a time at Mauritius, taking part in the action of 8 September 1796, before being sold and becoming a privateer. [1]
Daedalus captured Prudente on 9 February 1799 near Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope. At daybreak Daedalus spotted two sails and gave chase to the larger vessel, catching up with her at about 12:30. The quarry struck after an action of almost an hour. She proved to be the Prudente, which Captain H.L. Ball referred to as a French National frigate, rather than a privateer. She was pierced for 42 guns but was armed with twenty-six 12-pounder long guns on her main-deck and two long 6-pounders and two brass howitzers on her quarterdeck. She had a crew of 297 men. In the fight, Daedalus lost two men killed and 12 wounded. Prudente lost 27 men killed and 22 wounded. The ship in her company, which escaped, was American vessel "Concord" that she had taken as a prize on 7 or 9 February. [2] [3]
Louis-Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse was a French Navy officer and politician. He was born in Auch. After serving in the Indies under Suffren, he rose in rank during the early stages of the French Revolution. He was in command of the French fleet during the Glorious First of June, where despite being handed a heavy tactical defeat, he ensured the passage of a vital grain convoy to France.
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The Sunda Strait campaign of January 1794 was a series of manoeuvres and naval actions fought between warships and privateers of the French Republic and a squadron of vessels sent by the British East India Company to protect trade in the region, later augmented by Dutch warships. The campaign developed as French forces based on Île de France reacted more quickly than the British forces in the Indian Ocean to the expansion of the French Revolutionary Wars on 1 February 1793. French privateers rapidly spread along the British trade routes in the Far East, becoming concentrated around the narrow Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies. These ships were soon joined by French Navy frigates and began to inflict losses on shipping in the region. The Royal Navy forces in the Indian Ocean were deployed elsewhere and so the East India Company, the private enterprise that ruled much of British India in the 1790s and maintained their own fleet and navy, raised a squadron of armed merchant ships to patrol the Strait and drive off the raiders.
The action of 5 May 1794 was a minor naval engagement fought in the Indian Ocean during the French Revolutionary Wars. A British squadron had been blockading the French island of Isle de France since early in the year, and early on 5 May discovered two ships approaching their position. As the strange vessels came closer, they were recognised as the French frigate Duguay Trouin, which had been captured from the East India Company the year before, and a small brig. Making use of a favourable wind, the British squadron gave chase to the new arrivals, which fled. The chase was short, as Duguay Trouin was a poor sailor with many of the crew sick and unable to report for duty. The British frigate HMS Orpheus was the first to arrive, and soon completely disabled the French frigate, successfully raking the wallowing ship. After an hour and twenty minutes the French captain surrendered, Captain Henry Newcome of Orpheus taking over the captured ship and bringing his prize back to port in India.
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During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, many French privateers and letters of marque bore the name Duguay-Trouin, named for René Duguay-Trouin: René Trouin, Sieur du Gué, French privateer, admiral and Commander in the Order of Saint Louis. Between 1760 and 1810, warships of the Royal Navy captured seven different French privateers all with the name Duguay-Trouin.
The action of 9 February 1799 was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars between a British Royal Navy frigate and a French privateer frigate fought 100 nautical miles (190 km) west of the southeastern coast of what is now Natal in South Africa. The 32-gun French frigate Prudente had since the start of the war been part of a squadron operating from Île de France. This squadron had dispersed during 1798, with the ships sent on independent commerce raiding operations across the British trade routes in the Indian Ocean. Prudente had subsequently been seized in the autumn of that year by Anne Joseph Hippolyte de Maurès, Comte de Malartic, the Governor of Île de France, and sold to a private raiding company.
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