HMS Antigua (1804)

Last updated

History
Flag of the Kingdom of France (1814-1830).svg Flag of French-Navy-Revolution.svg Civil and Naval Ensign of France.svg France
NameRailleuse
Builder Rochefort
Launched11 August 1779 [1]
Captured25 March 1804
NotesOriginally the Galathée-class frigate Railleuse and then the 36-gun privateer Égyptienne
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
NameHMS Antigua
Namesake Antigua, an island in the West Indies
AcquiredBy capture 25 March 1804 or 27 March 1804
FateScrapped 1816
General characteristics [2]
Class and type Galathée-class frigate
Tons burthen856 tons bm
Length145 ft (44.2 m) (overall); c.117 ft 6 in (35.8 m)
Beam37 ft (11.3 m)
Complement301 (French service)
Armament
  • French service
  • Initially: 26 × 12-pounder + 6 × 6-pounder guns
  • Later: 8 × 6-pounder guns + 4 × 36-pounder howitzers [1]

HMS Antigua was a French frigate launched in 1779. She became a privateer that the British captured in 1804. She served the Royal Navy as a prison ship from 1804 to 1816, when she was broken up.

Contents

French service

Antigua began her career as the Galathée class French frigate Railleuse. [3] She was built in Bordeaux in 1777 to a 32-gun design by Raymond-Antoine Haran and launched in 1779.

She took part in the Battle of the Chesapeake on 5 September 1781, and in the subsequent Siege of Yorktown, under Sainte-Eulalie. [4]

She underwent repairs at Rochefort several times, in January to April 1783 and in May 1790. In 1791 she was coppered, and then underwent further repairs in 1794.

On 11 June 1794 she was cruising in the Channel when she encountered and chased the 14-gun cutter HMS Ranger off Brest. Ranger engaged in some proforma resistance and then struck. The French treated Ranger's crew badly, stripping the men naked and keeping them on deck for two days until they arrived at Brest. [5] The French Navy took Ranger into service and kept her name.

Privateer

In 1797 the French navy disposed of Railleuse. [1] She became the French privateer Égyptienne, a 36-gun ship with a crew of 120 based at Bordeaux.

In December 1800, the hired armed cutter Nimrod recaptured Skene, Crawly, master, which had been sailing from Dublin to London when the privateer Egyptian captured Skene. Nimrod sent Skene into Falmouth on 30 December. [6]

A letter from Madeira dated 22 February 1804 reported that the 36-gun privateer Égyptienne was cruising to the south of the island. Another privateer, this one of 20 guns, was also in the area. [7] Egyptienne was next reported to be off the windward coast of Africa on 8 March. [8]

Égyptienne must have then sailed to the Caribbean as on 19 March she captured the Denault, Ball, master, which had been sailing from London to Demerara, and sent her into Guadeloupe. Égyptienne then intercepted the Ranger, Williams, master, Favourite, Holman, master, and Wadstray, Way, master, which were sailing in company, also from London to Demerara. [9] Égyptienne captured the Wadstray, which however the frigate Blanche recaptured, [10] and sent into Jamaica. [11]

Capture

On 23 March 1804, the British 18-gun sloop Osprey gave chase to four ships that turned out to be a frigate and three merchant ships. Osprey badly damaged the frigate Égyptienne in a close, 80-minute action near Barbados before Égyptienne used her superior speed to escape. Osprey lost one man killed and 16 wounded in the action and her hull and rigging were badly damaged. [12]

On the 25th, Osprey and the British 18-gun sloop Hippomenes recaptured the Reliance, one of several prizes that Égyptienne had taken. From the prize master the British found out the identity of the vessel that Osprey had fought.

On 25 March 1804 [13] or 27 March 1804 [14] Hippomenes captured the damaged Égyptienne after a 54-hour chase followed by a three-hour, 20-minute single-ship action. [15] Égyptienne was under the command of M. Placiard and had a crew of 255 men. After Hippomenses captured Égyptienne, the British found out that she had lost eight men killed and 19 wounded in the fight with Osprey. Hippomenes had only one man slightly wounded.

British service and fate

The British took Égyptienne into service as HMS Antigua as there was already an Egyptienne in the Royal Navy. Because Égyptienne was twenty-five years old, and battered, the Navy decided against sending her to sea again. Lieutenant James Middleton commissioned her in December 1808 and commanded her until 1815. [2] From December 1808 Antigua served as a prison hulk until scrapped in 1816. [13]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 Demerliac (2004), p. 65, #399.
  2. 1 2 Winfield (2008), p. 402.
  3. ↑ Roche (2005), p. 370.
  4. ↑ Contenson (1934), p. 167.
  5. ↑ Hepper (1994), p. 76.
  6. ↑ Lloyd's List, - accessed 23 January 2014.
  7. ↑ Lloyd's List, - accessed 22 January 2014.
  8. ↑ Lloyd's List, - accessed 22 January 2014.
  9. ↑ Lloyd's List, - accessed 22 January 2014.
  10. ↑ Naval Chronicle, Vol. 12, p.179.
  11. ↑ Lloyd's List, - accessed 22 January 2014.
  12. ↑ Clowes, p. 341; Colledge, p. 251.
  13. 1 2 Colledge (1987), p. 34.
  14. ↑ Clowes, p. 342
  15. ↑ "No. 15702". The London Gazette . 15 May 1804. p. 620.

Related Research Articles

French frigate <i>Surveillante</i> (1778)

Surveillante was an Iphigénie-class 32-gun frigate of the French Navy. She took part in the Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War, where she became famous for her battle with HMS Quebec; in 1783, she brought the news that the war was over to America. She later took part in the French Revolutionary Wars, and was eventually scuttled during the Expédition d'Irlande after sustaining severe damage in a storm. The wreck was found in 1979 and is now a memorial.

HMS Antigua has been the name of five ships of the Royal Navy, named after the Caribbean island of Antigua:

HMS <i>Santa Margarita</i> (1779) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Santa Margarita was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had been built for service with the Spanish Navy, but was captured after five years in service, eventually spending nearly 60 years with the British.

HMS <i>Cleopatra</i> (1779) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Cleopatra was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had a long career, seeing service during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. During the latter wars she fought two notable engagements with larger French opponents. In the first engagement she was forced to surrender, but succeeded in damaging the French ship so badly that she was captured several days later, while Cleopatra was retaken. In the second she forced the surrender of a 40-gun frigate. After serving under several notable commanders she was broken up towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

French frigate <i>Égyptienne</i> (1799)

Égyptienne was a French frigate launched at Toulon in 1799. Her first service was in Napoleon's Egyptian campaign of 1801, in which the British captured her at Alexandria. She famously carried the Rosetta Stone to Woolwich, and then the Admiralty commissioned her into the Royal Navy as the 40-gun fifth-rate frigate HMS Egyptienne. She served in a number of single-ship actions before being reduced to harbour service in 1807, and was sold for breaking in 1817.

Nine ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Zephyr after Zephyrus, the Greek god of the west wind:

HMS Hippomenes was a former Dutch corvette built in Vlissingen in 1797 for the Batavian Republic. The British captured her in 1803 and she served with the Royal Navy until sold in 1813. With the Royal Navy she participated in two notable single-ship actions in the West Indies.

HMS <i>Peruvian</i> (1808) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Peruvian was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in 1808 at Parson's Yard, Warsash, England. She was the first naval vessel built at that yard. Peruvian captured two American privateers and participated in an expedition up the Penobscot River during the War of 1812. Then she claimed Ascension Island for Great Britain in 1815. She was broken up in 1830.

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars Égyptienne, or Egypt, which commemorated Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, was a popular name for French vessels, including naval vessels and privateers. Between 1799 and 1804, warships of the Royal Navy captured one French frigate and five different French privateers all with the name Égyptienne, and at least one privateer with the name Égypte.

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 Leith, also known as HM hired armed ship Leith, was launched in 1744 or 1746 in the British "Plantations", more specifically, the colony of Maryland. From 1764 to 1777 she was a Greenlandman, that is a whaler, in the waters east of Greenland. Between 1777 and 1782 she served the Royal Navy as a transport and hired armed naval ship. She was last listed in 1783.

HMS Unique was the French 12-gun schooner Harmonie that Cyane captured from the French in 1804. A French privateer recaptured and sank Unique in 1806.

HMS <i>Emerald</i> (1795) Frigate of the Royal Navy, in service 1795-1836

HMSEmerald was a 36-gun Amazon-class fifth rate frigate that Sir William Rule designed in 1794 for the Royal Navy. The Admiralty ordered her construction towards the end of May 1794 and work began the following month at Northfleet dockyard. She was completed on 12 October 1795 and joined Admiral John Jervis's fleet in the Mediterranean.

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.

The French brig Duc de Chartres was built between 1779 and 1780 at Le Havre as a 24-gun privateer. As a privateer she captured one British warship before in 1781 the Royal Navy captured her. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Duc de Chartres. She then captured several American privateers and armed merchant vessels, and one French naval corvette in a noteworthy single-ship action. The Navy sold Duc de Chartres in 1784.

HMS Morne Fortunee was the French privateer Regulus that British Royal Navy captured in 1804. In 1806 the Royal Navy commissioned her. She captured some small privateers and took part in a number of other engagements. She foundered in 1809.

Général Pérignon was a brig launched at Saint-Malo in February 1804 as a privateer. She captured numerous British merchant vessels over several cruises. In January 1810 the British Royal Navy captured her. She was sold in March 1810 and became a coaster sailing between Plymouth and London under her original name, or as Intention. She was last listed in 1816.

HMS Muros was the privateer Alcide, launched at Bordeaux in 1804. The British Royal Navy (RN) captured her in 1806 and commissioned her. She wrecked in March 1808.

HMS <i>Wolf</i> (1804) British sloop-of-war (1804–1806)

HMS Wolf was a Merlin-class sloop launched at Dartmouth in 1804. She captured or destroyed four small Spanish or French privateers before she was wrecked on 4 September 1806 in the Bahamas.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.