The French ship Sophie was a slave vessel launched at Nantes in May 1790. Her owners commissioned her there as a privateer in 1793 after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. The French Navy, desperate for escort vessels, requisitioned her on 21 April 1794. In May 1795, the French Navy returned the ship to her owners for use as a privateer. HMSEndymion captured her off the Irish Coast in September 1798.[lower-alpha 1] The Royal Navy took Sophie into service. She then served in the North Sea, Baltic, Mediterranean, and East Indies until she was broken up in 1809.
When Endymion captured Sophie in September 1798, Sophie had been out 82 days, but had taken nothing. She was armed with 22 guns and had a crew of 130 men. Captain Thomas Williams, of Endymion, described Sophie as:[4]
... a very fine Ship, quite new, and well adapted for His Majesty's Service, being an extraordinary fast Sailer; she having been chased Eight different Times during her last Cruize by our Ships of War, and each time escaped by superior Sailing.
HMS Sophie
Endymion brought Sophie and two merchant prizes into Spithead on 5 September 1798.[4] She arrived at Portsmouth on 12 September 1798, but was not fitted there until July–September 1799.[2] The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Sophie, registering and establishing her on 5 October 1798.
Commander George Burdett commissioned Sophie in September 1799. On 3 December, she returned to Portsmouth from a cruise to Bilbao.[5] On 9 May 1800, she convoyed transports from Portsmouth to Guernsey.[6] O 22 July Sophie arrived at Portsmouth with the navy transports Sea Nymph, Howard, Huddleton, and Diligence, which she had convoyed from Ireland.[7]
In April 1802, Commander Philip Lewis Rosenhagen took command for the Downs station, and then the North Sea. He recommissioned her in April 1803.[2]Sophie shared with Penelope, Fortunee, and Ambuscade in the capture of the Twe'e Gebroeders, Post, master. However, the proceeds were only £38 17s and were to be shared with over 800 men. The prize agents therefore bought 17⁄16 lottery tickets.[8] Unfortunately, there is no announcement of the proceeds of the lottery tickets.
In July 1802, Sophie was sailing to and from Jersey. At the end of the month she and several other naval vessels sailed there to convoy transports that were taking Dutch troops from Jersey to Cuxhaven.[9] she returned to Portsmouth from Cuxhaven on 2 September.[10]
Between 8 August and 14 September 1803, and perhaps longer, Sophie maintained a blockade on the Weser river.[11]
Sophie then shared with the same three vessels in the proceeds of the capture on 11 August of the Vyf Gebroeders, Lintz, master; Vier Gesusters, Hacrna, master; Jonge Jan, Dick, master; Jonge Rocloss, Groot, master; and Vrow Sevantye, Janiz, master.[12] On 27 August Clyde detained the Hendrick and Jan. Fortunee, Penelope, Ambuscade, Sophie, and Beaver were in company.[13]
In 1804, Sophie transferred to the Gibraltar station and the Mediterranean. By February, she was convoying trtansports between Gibraltar and Lisbon. On 19 March, Lord Nelson wrote to Rosenhagen, ordering him to take a "most secret" letter to "Rendezvous 97, under Cape Sebastians" where he was to deliver it to the captain of Juno.
On 17 January 1805, Sophie captured the Greek ship San Nicholai. She shared the prize money with Fisgard and Beaver, Beaver sharing by agreement with Sophie.[14]
On 6 May, Sophie captured Dolphin.[15] Then on 5 July Sophie captured the Spanish zebequeFrancisco de Assis (or St Francis d'Assis). Alcyon was in company.[16][17]
In March 1806, Commander William Mansell replaced Rosenhagen. Sophie sailed to the East Indies in 1808.[2]
Fate
The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" offered the sloops "Sophie, Echo, and Cerf, lying at Deptford" for sale on 12 January 1809.[18]Sophie docked at Deptford on 29 June 1809 to be broken up.[2]
Notes
↑ Some British sources state that Sophie had been renamed Premier Consul, or that HMS Sophie had been Premier Consul. This is incorrect. Sophie was never Premier Consul as General Napoleon did not appoint himself Premier Consul/First Consul until 1799. The only letter in the London Gazette mentioning the capture of a Premier Consul was by HMSDryad in 1801.[3] It appears that a clerk in the Navy Records Office made a careless mistake.
HMS Endymion was a 40-gun fifth rate that served in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812 and during the First Opium War. She was built to the lines of the French prize Pomone captured in 1794. Due to her exceptional handling and sailing properties, the Severn-class frigates were built to her lines, although the gunports were rearranged to mount an extra pair of guns per side, the ships were made of softwood and were not built until nearly the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Arethusa was a 38-gun Minerva-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built at Bristol in 1781. She served in three wars and made a number of notable captures before she was broken up in 1815.
HMS Pompee was a 74-gun ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. Built as Pompée, a Téméraire-class ship of the French Navy, she was handed over to the British at Spithead by French royalists who had fled France after the Siege of Toulon by the French Republic, only a few months after being completed. After reaching Great Britain, Pompée was registered and recommissioned as HMS Pompee and spent the entirety of her active career with the Royal Navy until she was broken up in 1817.
D'Hautpoul was a Téméraire class 74-gun French Navy ship of the line launched at Lorient on 2 September 1807. She was previously named Alcide and Courageux.
Embuscade ("Ambush") was a 32-gun frigate. She served in the French Navy during the War of the First Coalition before being captured by the British. Renamed HMS Ambuscade and later HMS Seine, she participated in the Napoleonic Wars in the Royal Navy. She was broken up in 1813.
Pomone was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, launched in 1785. The British captured her off the Île de Batz in April 1794 and incorporated her into the Royal Navy. Pomone subsequently had a relatively brief but active career in the British Navy off the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of France before suffering sufficient damage from hitting a rock to warrant being taken out of service and then broken up in 1803.
HMS Hazard was a 16-gun Royal Navy Cormorant-class ship-sloop built by Josiah & Thomas Brindley at Frindsbury, Kent, and launched in 1794. She served in the French Revolutionary Wars and throughout the Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes, and participated in a notable ship action against the French frigate Topaze, as well as in several other actions and campaigns, three of which earned her crew clasps to the Naval General Service Medal. Hazard was sold in 1817.
HMS Castor was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French briefly captured her during the Atlantic Campaign of May 1794 but she spent just 20 days in French hands as a British ship retook her before her prize crew could reach a French port. Castor eventually saw service in many of the theatres of the wars, spending time in the waters off the British Isles, in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as the Caribbean.
HMS Argo was a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1781 from Howdon Dock. The French captured her in 1783, but 36 hours later the British recaptured her. She then distinguished herself in the French Revolutionary Wars by capturing several prizes, though she did not participate in any major actions. She also served in the Napoleonic Wars. She was sold in 1816.
HMS Camilla was a Royal Navy 20-gun Sphinx-class post ship. Camilla was built in Chatham Dockyard to a design by John Williams and was launched in 1776. She served in the American Revolution, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars, before being sold in 1831.
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 Aurora was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, that saw service during the American and French Revolutionary wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. Designed to carry a complement of 200 men, she was armed with a main battery of twenty-four 9-pound guns.
HMS Venus was the name ship of the 36-gun Venus-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1758 and served for more than half a century until 1809. She was reduced from 36 to 32 guns in 1792. She was sold in 1822.
HMS Dolphin was 10-gun cutter that served the Royal Navy from 1793 to 1802, first as a hired armed cutter, and then after the Navy purchased her, as HMS Dolphin. During her almost decade of service Dolphin patrolled the English Channel protecting British trade by capturing French privateers and recapturing their prizes.
HMS Seahorse was a 38-gun Artois-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1794 and broken up in 1819.
HMS Childers was a brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, initially armed with 10 carriage guns which were later increased to 14 guns. The first brig-sloop to be built for the Navy, she was ordered from a commercial builder during the early years of the American War of Independence, and went on to support operations in the English Channel and the Caribbean. Laid up for a time after the end of the American War of Independence, she returned to service shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. She had an active career in both the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous French privateers and during the Gunboat War participated in a noteworthy single-ship action. The navy withdrew her from service at the beginning of 1811, at which time she was broken up.
The French corvette Bacchante was launched in 1795 as the second of the four-vessel Serpente class of corvettes. 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 brig Amarante, was launched in 1793 at Honfleur for the French Navy. The British Royal Navy captured her at the end of 1796 and took her into service as HMS Amaranthe. She captured one French vessel in a single-ship action before she was wrecked near Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1799.
HMS Vautour was 16-gun brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy. The navy captured her from the French on the stocks in 1809 and commissioned her in 1810. She foundered in October 1813.
HMS Snake was a British Royal Navy ship launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of brig-sloops. She captured or destroyed two French privateers and one Danish privateer. She also captured numerous small merchantmen, but spent time escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She was sold in 1816.
References
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French warships in the age of sail, 1786-1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-84832-204-2. OCLC951147333.
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