 Trompeuse | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Builder | Nantes |
| Commissioned | 1797 |
| Captured | 4 March 1800 |
 Great Britain | |
| Name | HMS Trompeuse |
| Acquired | 1800 by purchase of a prize |
| Fate | Sold in 1811 for breaking up |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Tons burthen | 38048⁄94 (bm) |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 29 ft 10 in (9.1 m) |
| Depth of hold | 13 ft 1+3⁄4 in (4.0 m) |
HMS Trompeuse was the French privateer brig Coureur that the British Royal Navy captured in 1800. She was sold for breaking up in 1811.
The origins of HMS Trompeuse are subject to some confusion. Two reputable sources state that she was the privateer brig Trompeuse that HMS Révolutionnaire captured on 4 March 1800. [2] [1] However, on that date Révolutionnaire captured the privateer Coureur.
Coureur or Courier was a privateer commissioned in Nantes in 1797 under Pierre Arnoux, with 150 men and 10 guns. [3]
When captured, Coureur was pierced for 18 cannon but carried ten 6-pounder guns and four carronades; she had a crew of 158 men. She was 20 days out of Nantes on her first cruise and had captured "His Majesty's Ship" Princess Royal, which had been sailing to Tortola. The captain and most of the crew of Princess Royal were on board Coureur. [lower-alpha 1] Captain T. Twysden of Revolutionnaire described Coureur as being "quite new,..., Copper-bottomed, and sails delightfully." [5] Revolutionnaire brought Couriere into Cork. [4]
Coureur arrived at Plymouth on 21 May 1800 and was laid up. She then underwent fitting in July to August 1803, Commander Matthew Godwin having commissioned her as HMS Trompeuse on 23 June 1803, for the Irish Station. [1] He then cruised off the south-west coast of Ireland until 30 September 1804. (He had been promoted to post captain on 8 May.) In February 1804, in boisterous seas, Trompeuse assisted the British ship Commerce after she lost her rudder and, with difficulty, brought her into Cove of Cork. [6]
Commander John Shortland replaced Godwin and sailed her to the coast of Guinea. While there he was promoted to post captain in the sixth rate HMS Squirrel following the death there of her captain.) The Admiralty confirmed the appointment when Squirrel returned to England later that year.) [7] Trompeuse returned to Deal from Africa on 25 July 1805.
Commander William Brooking Dolling replaced Shortland.
On 9 April 1806 Trompeuse sent into Dover Augusta Carolina, Harnicks, master, which had been sailing from Liverpool to Embden. [8]
On 19 February 1809, Trompeuse, Crocus, and the brig-sloop Rolla were in company when Rolla recaptured the American ship Factor. [9] Factor, of New York, Johnstone, master, had been sailing from Tenerife when a privateer captured her the day before between Beachy Head and Dungeness. The British sent her into Dover. The same privateer had also captured a brig, which the excise cutter Lively had recaptured and sent into the Downs. [10]
On 15 May Trompeuse was in company with HMS Badger off the coast of France. They observed 11 French armed schuyts east of Boulogne. As Trompeuse came up, the schuyts tried to get into Ambleteuse, but three of them overshot the harbour and had to go round Cape Grisnez. That night boats from Trompeuse and Badger captured two schuyts, each armed with mounting two 6-pounder guns and two howitzers, and having 13-man crews. Despite heavy small arms fire from the beach and gunfire from shore batteries, the cutting-out party succeeded in bringing them out; the third schuyt was driven on the rocks. Trompeuse had one man slightly wounded. The French had two men wounded and six men threw themselves into the sea. [11] The two captured schuyts came into Dover. [12]
Commander John Hardy Godby replaced Dolling in September.
The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" offered the "Trompeuse Sloop, of 380 tons", lying at Sheerness, for sale on 12 November 1810. [13] She may not have sold at that time because reportedly she was broken up at Sheerness in March 1811. [1]
HMS Leda, launched in 1800, was the lead ship of a successful class of forty-seven British Royal Navy 38-gun sailing frigates. Leda's design was based on the French Hébé, which the British had captured in 1782. Leda was wrecked at the mouth of Milford Haven in 1808, Captain Honeyman was exonerated of all blame, as it was a pilot error.
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 Porcupine was a 24-gun Porcupine-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy built in 1777 and broken up in 1805. During her career she saw service in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.
HMS Persian was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Daniel List and launched at Cowes in 1809. She captured two privateers before she wrecked in 1813.
HMS Firm was a 12-gun Archer-class gun-brig of the Royal Navy, launched on 2 July 1804. She served in the Channel, where she engaged in one action that would eventually result in her crew qualifying for the Naval General Service Medal. She grounded in 1811 and her crew had to destroy her before abandoning her.
HMS Moucheron was a French privateer, built in 1799, that the British captured in 1801. The British government purchased her in 1802 for the Royal Navy. She foundered in 1807 in the Mediterranean without leaving a trace.
HMS Crocus was the nameship of the Crocus-class brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1808 and had an almost completely uneventful career until she was sold in 1815. She then became a merchantman trading with the West Indies and the Mediterranean. She was last listed in 1823.
The French brig Suffisante was launched in 1793 for the French Navy. In 1795 the Royal Navy captured her and took her into service under her existing name. HMS Suffisante captured seven privateers during her career, as well as recapturing some British merchantmen and capturing a number of prizes, some of them valuable. She was lost in December 1803 when she grounded in poor weather in Cork harbour.
Bordelais, launched in 1799, was a privateer corvette from Bordeaux, France. She took part in three campaigns before HMS Révolutionnaire captured her. She then served the Royal Navy until broken up in 1804.
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.
HMS Swallow was an 18-gun Albatross-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1795 and sold in 1802. During her naval career she captured a number of French privateers while on the Jamaica station. After her sale she became an armed whaler sailing under a letter of marque. As a privateer she captured two French whaling vessels but then is no longer listed after 1810.
HMS Jalouse was a Cormorant-class ship-sloop of the British Royal Navy launched in 1809 and sold in 1819. She participated in the capture of a French privateer, but spent most of her active service escorting convoys. The Navy sold her in 1819.
Numerous vessels have been named Vautour :
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.
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.
Milan was a French brig built at Saint Malo, from plans designed by François Pestel that had already served for Curieux in 1800 and for Palinure in 1804. She served in the French Navy for four years before HMS Surveillante and Seine captured her. She became HMS Achates in the Royal Navy and served until after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Royalist was launched in 1807. She captured many privateers and letters of marque, most French, but also some from Denmark and the United States. Her crew twice were awarded the Naval General Service Medal. She was instrumental in the capture of a French frigate. The Royal Navy sold her in 1819. She then became a whaler, making three complete voyages. She was condemned after a mishap while on her fourth.
HMS Trompeuse was a former French 16-gun brig-sloop, launched in July 1793, that HMS Sphinx captured on 12 January 1794 near Cape Clear Island. The British Royal Navy took her into service. As HMS Trompeuse she captured a small privateer and then grounded off Kinsale in 1796.