Topaze was ordered on 14 March 1789.[3] In 1793, she cruised in the Gulf of Lion, along with the 40-gun frigate Aréthuse.[3] In August, her home port of Toulon rebelled against Convention nationale and her commanding officer, Grasse-Limermont, surrendered her to the British.[4] At the end of the Siege of Toulon, she fled to Porto-Ferrayo, and was incorporated in the British Royal Navy.[3]
British service
French Revolutionary Wars
In August 1795, Topaze was commissioned under the command of Captain Stephen George Church. She sailed for Halifax in March 1796.[1] On the morning of 28 August Topaze was part of a British squadron that was sitting becalmed about four leagues from Cape Henry when they spotted three strange vessels.[5]Bermuda was the closest to them and signaled that they were enemy frigates. The British were not able to set out in pursuit until midday. Topaze was the first to catch the breeze and outdistanced her companions.[6] She caught up with the laggard after about five and half hours. The French vessel fired a broadside and then surrendered. Assistance and Bermuda then took possession of the prize and accompanied her to Halifax while the rest of the squadron pursued, unsuccessfully, the other two French frigates. When Assistance took possession the French vessel she turned out to be the Elizabeth, of twenty-four 12-pounder and twelve 8-pounder (or 9-pounder) guns,[6] and with a crew of 297 men. The Royal Navy did not purchase Elizabeth. She was an Indiaman, i.e., a merchant vessel, that the French government had bought and apparently was "an indifferent sailer".[5]
In 1800 Topaze captured a few small prizes, one of them being the galliotLouisa, which came into Plymouth on 30 May.[7]Topaze and Heureux sailed for the West Indies on 13 February 1801 as escorts to a large convoy.[8] Church died in August in the West Indies, of a fever.[9] In 1801 she came under the command of Captain Robert Honyman, who had come out to Jamaica on Garland during the summer. Honyman then sailed Topaze back to England, where she served on the Irish station.[1]
Napoleonic Wars
In April 1803 Topaze was commissioned under Captain Willoughby Lake.[1] On 4 June Providence came into Plymouth. Topaze had captured her while she was sailing from Charlestown to Ostend with a cargo of rice and cotton.[10] At the end of the month, 34 French fishing boats came into Portsmouth. They were prizes to Africaine and Topaze. Topaze also brought in a French brig from Algiers.[11] Nine of the fishing boats were given up (released) shortly thereafter.[12]
On 4 February 1804 Topaze was one of the escorts for the West Indies fleet sailing from Cork. She was to accompany the fleet as far as Madeira.[13]
On 25 September 1804, Topaze encountered and captured the French letter of marque ship Minerve, of Bordeaux, which was sailing to Martinique. She was pierced for 18 guns, but carried only fourteen 9-pounders, and had a crew of 111 men.[14] She came into Cork on 3 October. She was carrying a cargo of wine and brandy. Topaze only captured her at 49°30′N15°30′W / 49.500°N 15.500°W / 49.500; -15.500 after a chase of 12 hours.[15]
Then some six months later, on 13 February 1805, Topaze captured and brought into Cork the ketch-rigged General Augereau, of Bayonne. General Augereau was armed with fourteen 12-pounder carronades, and had a crew of 88 men. She had been cruising 47 days but had taken no prizes. Apparently General Augereau was notorious for her past success, and particularly the capture of the West Indiaman, William Heathcote.[16]Topaze had captured General Augereau at 45°N5°W / 45°N 5°W / 45; -5.[17]
On 7 May 1805, Lake and Topaze captured the Spanish privateer Napoleon, of St. Sebastian. Napoleon was pierced for 20 cannon but was armed with ten 9-pounder guns and four 18-pounder carronades; she had a crew of 108 men. She was out of Bordeaux in the 57th day of her first cruise during which she had captured the letter of marqueWestmoreland, of Liverpool, after a sharp action, and the brig Brunswick, which had been sailing from Honduras.[18]
Then on 20 May, Topaze captured the Spanish privateer brig Fenix, also of St. Sebastian. Fenix armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 85 men. She was ten days out of Vigo and had taken no prizes.[18]Topaze sent both into Cork, where they arrived in June.[19]
The French corvette Sylphe captured on 13 May 1805 at 49°49′N15°25′W / 49.817°N 15.417°W / 49.817; -15.417 a number of vessels in a convey that had left Cork on the 9th for Newfoundland. Topaze and Rosario each recaptured one. Topaze also recaptured Young William, Young, master, which a Spanish corvette of 20 guns had captured. Young William had been sailing from Cork to Westport.[20]
By June 1806 Captain Anselm John Griffiths had taken command of Topaze on the Irish station.[21] He sailed her to the Mediterranean on 8 January 1808.[21]
In 1809 she joined the forces operating in the Adriatic campaign of 1807-1814. When the French despatched the frigates Danaé and Flore from Toulon to the Adriatic, Topaze and Kingfisher intercepted them on 12 March.[21] Despite bringing the French to action, the British were unable to prevent them reaching Corfu and then sailing north to augment French defences in the Adriatic. Topaze sustained no casualties or meaningful damage.[22][lower-alpha 1]
On 31 May, off Demata, Albania, boats from Topaze attacked a French coastal convoy under the fortress of St. Maura.[23] The boats captured:
XebecJoubert, armed with eight guns and six swivel guns, with a crew of 55 men under the command of Enseigne de Vaisseau Martin;
CutterMenteur, of four guns and 20 men, under the command of Enseigne de Vaisseau P. Gabriel;
Her boats destroyed four vessels whose names were unknown:
Gun-boat, of one gun and 16 men;
Gun-boat, of one gun and 15 men;
Trabaccolo, of 29 tons; and
Trabaccolo, of 30 tons.
All the vessels, except Joubert, were carrying government-owned cargoes of timber and brandy for Corfu. The boat action took place under heavy fire with the result that Topaze lost one man killed and one man wounded.[23]
After this action Captain Henry Hope took command of Topaze and operated off the coast of Spain. In October 1809, in 1809, she took part in the Battle of Maguelone,[24] a squadron under Rear Admiral George Martin, of Collingwood's fleet, chased an enemy convoy off the south of France. They succeeded in driving two of the three escorting ships of the line, Robuste and Lion, ashore near Frontignan, where their crews burnt them after dismantling them and stripping them of all usable material. The crews of the third ship of the line, Borée, and the frigate Pauline escaped into Sète.[25]
The transports that had been part of the convoy, including the armed storeship Lamproie, of 18 guns, two bombards (Victoire and Grondeur), and the xebecNormande, sailed into the Bay of Rosas where they hoped that the castle of Rosas, Fort Trinidad and several shore batteries would protect them.[25] On 30 October Tigre, Cumberland, Volontaire, Apollo, Topaze, Philomel, Tuscan and Scout sent in their boats. By the following morning the British had accounted for all eleven vessels in the bay, burning those they did not bring out. Some of the British boats took heavy casualties; Topaze lost four men killed and eight men wounded.[26] In January 1813, prize money was awarded to the British vessels that took part in the action for the capture of the ships of war Grondeur and Normande, and of the transports Dragon and Indien. A court declared Invincible a joint captor. Head money was also paid for the Grondeur and Normande and for the destruction of Lemproye and Victoire.[27]
On 9 December Topaze rescued 100 men from the garrison at Marbella when it fell to the French.
On 21 June 1810, the boats of Alceste and Topaze captured two vessels in the bay of Martino in Corsica.<[lower-alpha 3] A landing party captured a battery of three guns that protected the entrance to the bay. They were able to capture and render the guns unserviceable, and kill or wound a number of the garrison. The British lost one man killed and two wounded in the action.[28][lower-alpha 4]
On 24 August Topaze captured the Centinelle.[30]Topaze was also involved in the Battle of Fuengirola in October 1810. On 11 October Hope and Topaze took Lord Blayney from Gibraltar to Ceuta. two days later they left, escorting a division of gunboats and some transports carrying artillery, a battalion of the 89th Regiment of Foot ("Blayney's Bloodhounds"), the Spanish Imperial Regiment of Toledo and some others to Fuengirola to attack a Polish garrison there.[31] The battle proved a defeat for the Anglo-Spanish force and Blayney himself was captured.
In November 1810 Captain John Richard Lumley took command of Topaze.[lower-alpha 5] His successor was Captain Edward Harvey.[1] He sailed Topaze off Corfu until December 1812 when he escorted a convoy back to Britain. Topaze was in poor condition when he paid her off in February 1812.[32]
Fate
In 1812, HMS Topaze was laid up at Portsmouth. The Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy offered her for sale there on 11 August 1814, together with a number of other frigates and larger ships. Buyers had to post bond with two guarantors of £3000 that they would break up their purchases within a year and not sell or otherwise dispose of them.[33] She was sold on 1 September 1814 for £1,300,[1] and broken up in 1814.
↑ In September 1832, Hope and the others of Topaze's crew who had been on board on 8 July 1810, received the proceeds of "sundry coins sold at Malta, and of the sum of £300 reserved from the proceeds of sundry vessels captured by the said ship...". A first-class share, i.e., Hope's portion, was worth £112 17s 7d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth £1 1s 2½d.[29]
↑ He would go to command the second Topaze in 1814 and sail her to the Far East, where he would die at sea in 1821 and be buried at Penang.
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 Apollo, the fifth ship of the Royal Navy to be named for the Greek god Apollo, was a fifth-rate frigate of the Lively class, carrying 38 guns, launched in 1805 and broken up in 1856.
Topaze was a Gloire-class 44-gun frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1809 and she then served with the Royal Navy under the name Jewel, and later Alcmene until she was broken up in 1816.
Révolutionnaire, was a 40-gun Seine-class frigate of the French Navy, launched in May 1794. The British captured her in October 1794 and she went on to serve with the Royal Navy until she was broken up in 1822. During this service Revolutionnaire took part in numerous actions, including three for which the Admiralty would in 1847 award clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, and captured several privateers and merchant vessels.
HMS Dryad was a fifth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy that served for 64 years, at first during the Napoleonic Wars and then in the suppression of slavery. She fought in a notable single-ship action in 1796 when she captured the French frigate Proserpine, an action that would later earn her crew the Naval General Service Medal. Dryad was broken up at Portsmouth in 1860.
HMS Active was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate launched on 14 December 1799 at Chatham Dockyard. Sir John Henslow designed her as an improvement on the Artois-class frigates. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous enemy vessels. Her crews participated in one campaign and three actions that would later qualify them for the Naval General Service Medal. She returned to service after the wars and finally was broken up in 1860.
HMS Cerberus was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars in the Channel, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and even briefly in the Baltic against the Russians. She participated in one boat action that won for her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She also captured many privateers and merchant vessels. Her biggest battle was the Battle of Lissa, which won for her crew another clasp to the NGSM. She was sold in 1814.
HMS Kingfisher was a Royal Navy 18-gun ship sloop, built by John King and launched in 1804 at Dover. She served during the Napoleonic Wars, first in the Caribbean and then in the Mediterranean before being broken up in 1816.
HMS Belle Poule was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate, formerly Belle Poule, a Virginie-class frigate of the French Navy that had been built by the Crucy family's shipyard at Basse-Indre to a design by Jacques-Noël Sané. She was launched on 17 April 1802, and saw active service in the East. In 1806 a British squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren captured her off La Palma in the Canary Islands. The Admiralty commissioned her into the Royal Navy as HMS Belle Poule. She was sold in 1816.
HMS Niemen was a Royal Navy 38-gun fifth-rate frigate. She began her career as the Niémen, a 44-gun French Navy Armide-class frigate, designed by Pierre Rolland. She was only in French service for a few months when in 1809 she encountered some British frigates. The British captured her and she continued in British service as Niemen. In British service she cruised in the Atlantic and North American waters, taking numerous small American prizes, some privateers but mostly merchantmen. She was broken up in 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
HMS Mercury was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built during the American War of Independence and serving during the later years of that conflict. She continued to serve during the years of peace and had an active career during the French Revolutionary Wars and most of the Napoleonic Wars, until being broken up in 1814.
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.
Sir Henry Hope KCB was an English officer of the Royal Navy whose distinguished service in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 earned him acclaim. As captain of HMS Endymion, he was involved in the action on 14 January 1815 which ended in the capture of the American warship USS President.
HMS Superieure was the French privateer Supérieure, which was built in 1801 in Baltimore, Maryland, and which the British captured in 1803 in the West Indies, and took into the Royal Navy. She spent most of her career on the Jamaica and Leeward Islands stations, where she captured numerous privateers. She participated in several notable single-ship actions, including one in which she harassed a frigate, and two campaigns that would, in 1847, earn her surviving crew members the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She was laid-up in Britain in 1810 and sold in 1814.
Mutin was a 14-gun cutter of the French Navy, the lead ship of the Mutin class of five naval cutters. She was launched in 1778 and the Royal Navy captured her the next year, taking her into service as HMS Mutine. The Royal Navy renamed her HMS Pigmy in 1798. She was lost in 1805.
Confiance, launched in 1797, was a privateer corvette from Bordeaux, famous for being Robert Surcouf's ship during the capture of the British East India Company's East Indiaman Kent. The British Royal Navy captured Confiance in 1805, took her into service under her existing name, and sold her in 1810. Before she was sold, Confiance took part in two notable actions.
HMS Elizabeth was a French privateer schooner that the Royal Navy captured in 1805 and took into service under her existing name. She participated in an engagement and a campaign that earned her crews clasps to the Naval General Service Medal. She was lost with all hands in 1814 when she capsized in the West Indies.
Minerva was the French letter of marque Minerve, a former privateer from Bordeaux, that the Royal Navy captured in September 1804. Samuel Enderby & Sons purchased her c.1805 for use as a whaler. She was taken off the coast of Peru circa August 1805 after a crewman had killed her captain and her crew had mutinied.
Proserpine was launched at Amsterdam in 1801 as a 32-gun frigate. The Royal Navy captured her in May 1804 at the capture of Surinam and took her into service as HMS Amsterdam. She sailed to England where she became a guard and storeship at Cork. She was sold in 1815.
General Augereau was a ketch launched in 1801 and recommissioned in Bayonne in 1803 as a privateer. She made a small number of captures during her first cruise, but then the British Royal Navy captured her in February 1805 during her second cruise. She became a British merchantman, sailing between Cork and Liverpool, and was last listed in 1813.
Napier, Sir William Francis Patrick (1833) History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France: from the year 1807 to the year 1814, Volume 3 (T. and W. Boone).
Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Vol.1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC165892922. (1671-1870)
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.
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