The French tartane Marie-Rose (or Marie) was a tartane that the French Navy requisitioned in March 1798 at Marseille and commissioned as a transport of four guns and 22 men. [1] The British Royal Navy captured her in March 1799 off Syria and her captors took her into service as the gunbrig HMS Marie Rose. The Royal Navy disposed of her in 1800. [2]
Marie-Rose was one of a flotilla of seven vessels that Commodore Sir Sidney Smith in HMS Tigre took at Acre on 18 March 1799, all of which the British took into service. At capture Marie-Rose (or Maria Rose) carried four guns and had a crew of 22 men. [3]
The flotilla of gun-vessels was carrying siege artillery and other siege supplies to reinforce Napoleon's troops besieging Acre. Smith immediately put the guns and supplies to use to help the denizens of the city resist the French, and the gun-vessels to harass them.
Smith anchored Tigre and HMS Theseus, one on each side of the town, so their broadsides could assist the defence. The gun-vessels were of shallower draft and so could come in closer. Together, they helped repel repeated French assaults. [4] The French attacked multiple times between 19 March and 10 May before Napoleon finally gave up. On 21 May he destroyed his siege train and retreated back to Egypt, having lost 2,200 men dead, 1,000 of them to the plague. [5]
After Napoleon's failure at Acre, Smith sailed with his squadron on 12 June. He proceeded first along the coast to Beruta road, and then to Larnica road, Cyprus, in order to refit his little squadron. He and Tigre then departed for Constantinople; [6] the gun-vessels remained in the theatre.
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Three Royal Navy ships have borne the name HMS Lutin or Lutine, Lutine being French for "the tease" or "tormentress" or more literally "imp", and Lutine the feminine:
Nine ships and one shore establishment of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Wasp, with one other government vessel using the name:
The first HMS Dauntless was a sixth-rate Combatant-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1804 and the French captured her in 1807 at Danzig. The French Navy took her into service as Sans Peur, but her subsequent fate is unknown.
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Alceste was a Magicienne class frigate of the French Navy, launched in 1780, that the British seized at the Siege of Toulon. They transferred her to the Kingdom of Sardinia, but the French recaptured her a year later in the action of 8 June 1794. The British captured her again at the action of 18 June 1799 and took her into service as HMS Alceste. In 1801 she became a floating battery and she was sold the next year.
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.
Salamine was originally the Spanish Navy's Infante 18-gun brig, built in 1787 at Cadiz. The French Navy captured her at Toulon in December 1793 and recommissioned her; they renamed her on 10 May 1798 as Salamine, for the battle of Salamis. On 18 June 1799, HMS Emerald captured her and she was brought into Royal Navy service as HMS Salamine. She served briefly in the Mediterranean, where she captured two French privateers and several merchant vessels before the Royal Navy sold her at Malta in 1802, after the Treaty of Amiens ended the war with France.
HMS Dangereuse was a tartane named Duguay-Trouin that the French Navy requisioned in May 1794 to serve as an aviso. The Navy renamed her Dangereuse either in May 1795 or on 2 March 1796. She was one of a flotilla of seven gun-vessels that Commodore Sir Sidney Smith in HMS Tigre took at Acre on 18 March 1799, all of which the British took into service. At capture Dangereuse carried six guns and had a crew of 23 men. Smith put her under the command of Lieutenant Robert William Tyte (acting).
HMS Negresse was a tartane that the French Navy requisitioned at Marseilles in March 1798 and used as an aviso in the Egyptian campaign. The Royal Navy captured her in 1799 and took her into service. She participated in the defense at the siege of Acre later that year and in 1801 at the landing of British troops at Aboukir Bay. The Royal Navy sold her in 1802.
The Dutch frigate Alliantie was launched in 1788 in Amsterdam. HMS Stag captured her in 1795 and the British Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Alliance. The Admiralty converted her to a storeship shortly after her capture and fitting. She participated in the siege of Acre in 1799 with the result that her crew qualified for the Naval General Service Medal issued in 1847. She was sold in 1802.
The French gun-vessel Torride was the cutter Sally, of uncertain origin. The French Navy named her Torride around end-1797 and brought her into Toulon, where they refitted her as a gun-vessel. The Royal Navy captured her in 1798 at Abukir and took her into service as HMS Torride. She served at the siege of Acre in 1799, where the French recaptured her on 25 August for a few hours before the British recaptured her. She served in the Mediterranean and was last listed in 1802.
Foudre was a brig-rigged aviso that the French Navy launched in 1796. The Royal Navy captured her in March 1799, only to have the French recapture her the next month. The British recaptured her in 1800, returned her to service, but sold her in 1801.
Petite Sans Culotte was a French Navy tartane that the French Navy acquired at Toulon in July 1793, and armed with two 6-pounder guns. The British captured her in August at the Siege of Toulon. She was commissioned on 5 September into the British Royal Navy under the command of Lieutenant James Morgan, of HMS Victory. Morgan had been a midshipman on Victory and on his promotion to 8th Lieutenant of Victory, was immediately transferred to Petite Sans Culotte. He brought with him as crew 10 men from Victory. Consequently, the British renamed her Petite Victoire.
The action of 31 May 1796 was a small action during the French Revolutionary Wars in which a Royal Navy squadron under the command of Commodore Horatio Nelson, in the 64-gun third-rate ship of the line HMS Agamemnon, captured a seven-vessel French convoy that was sailing along the coast from Menton to Vado in the Mediterranean. The British succeeded in capturing the entire convoy, with minimal casualties to themselves.
The French gunboat Légère was a felucca that the French Navy commissioned in August 1794 at Toulon. The Royal Navy captured her in September 1798 and took her into service as HMS Legere. The Royal Navy disposed of her by 1803.
Deux Frères was a tartane that the French Navy had requisitioned in March 1798 at Marseille and commissioned as a transport. A British division under the command of Commodore Sir Sidney Smith in Tigre captured her on 18 March 1799 at the siege of Acre in 1799. She was one of a flotilla of seven vessels and Smith took all into the Royal Navy.
Two vessels named Torride have served the French Navy between 1786 and 1815:
Vierge-de-Grâce, was a merchant vessel that the French Navy requisitioned in 1798 for use as a transport. The Royal Navy captured her in March 1799 and took her into service as HMS Dame-de-Grace. The French corvette Salamine captured her on 8 May 1799 and scuttled her.
HMS Requin was the French Navy cutter Requin, launched at Boulogne in 1794. HMS Thalia captured Requin in 1795. Requin captured one small French privateer and participated in the capture of Suriname before wrecking in 1801.