Bienfaisant (on the right) at point of capture during the siege of Louisbourg in 1758. | |
History | |
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France | |
Name | Bienfaisant |
Launched | 13 October 1754 |
Captured | 25 July 1758, by Royal Navy |
Great Britain | |
Name | HMS Bienfaisant |
Acquired | 25 July 1758 |
Fate | Broken up, 1814 |
Notes |
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General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | 64-gun third rate ship of the line |
Tons burthen | 13607⁄94 (bm) |
Length | 153 ft 9 in (46.9 m) (gundeck) |
Beam | 44 ft 6 in (13.6 m) |
Depth of hold | 19 ft 4 in (5.9 m) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Armament | 64 guns of various weights of shot |
Bienfaisant was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1754.
A cutting out expedition ordered by Admiral Edward Boscawen of the British Royal Navy captured her on the night of 25 July 1758 during the 1758 Siege of Louisbourg. Bienfaisant and the 74-gun Prudent were the last remaining ships of the line of the French squadron in Louisbourg harbour. Prudent had run aground and so her captors set her alight, but men commanded by Commander George Balfour of HMS Aetna boarded and brought out Bienfaisant. The action provided a decisive moment of the siege; the fortress surrendered the next day.
The Royal Navy commissioned Bienfaisant as the third rate HMS Bienfaisant. [2] [3]
In late 1777 Bienfaissant, Captain McBride, captured American Tartar privateer, of 24 guns and 200 men. Bienfaissant took American Tartar to St. John's, Newfoundland. [4]
She took part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1780 and the capture of the Comte de Artois off Ireland in August.
On 19 July 1780, Bienfaisant encountered the French 32-gun frigate Nymphe, returning to Brest from America under Du Rumain. Nymphe managed to escape. [5]
Bienfaisant participated, under the command of Captain Braithwaite, in the 1781 Battle of Dogger Bank with reduced armament on her lower deck as the last ship in the line. [6] : 46
Bienfaisant was at Plymouth on 20 January 1795 and so shared in the proceeds of the detention of the Dutch naval vessels, East Indiamen, and other merchant vessels that were in port on the outbreak of war between Britain and the Netherlands. [7]
Bienfaisant was broken up in 1814.
HMS Vanguard was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 16 April 1748. She was built by Philemon Ewer at his East Cowes yard on the Isle of Wight to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment, at a cost of £8,009. She was the fourth vessel of the Royal Navy to bear the name Vanguard.
HMS Antelope was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Rotherhithe on 13 March 1703. She was rebuilt once during her career, and served in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War.
Admiral Philip Affleck was an admiral in the Royal Navy. He was the younger brother of Sir Edmund Affleck. Affleck held various commands throughout the latter half of the 18th Century, most notably as commander-in-chief of the Jamaica Station and as a Lord of the Board of Admiralty. Early in his career he fought at the Siege of Louisbourg where he was promoted commander after carrying out a successful cutting-out mission. He was promoted to post-captain a year later after impressing Admiral Edward Boscawen during the Battle of Lagos. Later in his career he joined Admiral Sir George Rodney in the West Indies and took part in the capture of Sint Eustatius. Between 1790 and 1792 he held the position of commander-in-chief of the Jamaica Station and between 1793 and 1796 he held his position as a Lord of the Board of Admiralty. Although his career was marked with long periods of inaction and unemployment Admiral Affleck was known as a good officer and was well respected by his peers.
HMS Ardent was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built by contract at Blaydes Yard in Hull according to a design by Sir Thomas Slade, and launched on 13 August 1764 as the first ship of the Ardent-class. She had a somewhat turbulent career, being captured by the French in the action of 17 August 1779, and then re-captured by Britain in 1782.
HMS Raisonnable was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, named after the ship of the same name captured from the French in 1758. She was built at Chatham Dockyard, launched on 10 December 1768 and commissioned on 17 November 1770 under the command of Captain Maurice Suckling, Horatio Nelson's uncle. Raisonnable was built to the same lines as HMS Ardent, and was one of the seven ships forming the Ardent class of 1761. Raisonnable was the first ship in which Nelson served.
HMS Lichfield was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at King's Yard in Harwich by John Barnard to the dimensions laid down in the 1741 proposals of the 1719 Establishment, and launched on 26 June 1746. She was wrecked on the Barbary Coast of North Africa on 28 November 1758.
HMS St Albans was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 September 1764 by Perry, Wells & Green at their Blackwall Yard, London.
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The Foudroyant was an 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was later captured and served in the Royal Navy as the Third Rate HMS Foudroyant.
Belliqueux was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1756.
HMS Kingston was a 60-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Frame in Hull and launched on 13 March 1697. She had an eventful career, taking part in numerous engagements.
The siege of Louisbourg was a pivotal operation of the Seven Years' War in 1758 that ended the French colonial era in Atlantic Canada and led to the subsequent British campaign to capture Quebec in 1759 and the remainder of French North America the following year.
Blackwall was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, launched at Blackwall Yard in 1696.
HMS Stirling Castle was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Chatham Dockyard to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment, and launched on 24 April 1742.
HMS Defiance was a 58-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the dimensions laid out in the 1741 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Deptford, and launched on 12 October 1744.
HMS Dunkirk was a 60-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Edward Allin at Woolwich Dockyard to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1750, and launched on 22 July 1754.
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