Utile (1784 ship)

Last updated

History
Civil and Naval Ensign of France.svg France
NameUtile
BuilderRaymond-Antoine Haran, Bayonne, to plans by de Boisseau
Laid down1783
LaunchedApril 1784
CapturedJune 1796
NotesUtile apparently was in Anglo-Spanish hands between August and December 1793 at Toulon
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svgGreat Britain
NameHMS Utile
AcquiredJune 1796 by capture
FateSold for breaking up 1798
General characteristics [1]
TypeGabarre
Displacement350 (unladen)/600 (laden) (French tons)
Length
  • Overall: 112 ft 0 in (34.14 m)
  • Keel: 102 ft 0 in (31.09 m)
Beam27 ft 0 in (8.23 m)
Draught10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) (unladen);12 ft 0 in (3.66 m) (laden)
Depth of hold13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion Sails
Complement80-120 (French service)
Armament18-20 × 6-pounder guns + 2-6 swivel guns

Utile was a gabarre of the French Royal Navy, launched in 1784. The British captured her in the Mediterranean in 1796 and she served briefly there before being laid up in 1797 and sold in 1798.

Contents

French service and capture

Utile was launched in early 1784 at Bayonne. She was built to plans by Jean-Joseph de Boissieu ad was the name-vessel of her two vessel class. [2]

She was also designated a corvette or an aviso. In 1790 she was on the Levant station and under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Gavoty. [3]

In August 1793 an Anglo-Spanish force captured Toulon and Royalist forces turned over to them the French naval vessels in the port. When the Anglo-Spanish force had to leave in December, they took with them the best vessels and tried to burn the remainder. [lower-alpha 1]

In November and December 1794 she was at Toulon undergoing repairs and refitting. She was to be renamed Zibeline in 1795, but apparently she retained her original name. [5]

In January and February 1796 she was under the command of enseigne de vaisseau Vezu and sailed between Toulon and Saint Florent via Livorno, transporting freed French and British prisoners. [3]

Around midday of 9 June 1796, Admiral John Jervis, Commander-in-Chief of the British Fleet in the Mediterranean, called Captain James Macnamara of the frigate Southampton on board his ship Victory, and pointed out a French corvette that was working her way up among the Hyères islands. Jervis then directed Macnamara "to make a Dash at her". [6] Macnamara immediately set out, sailing the Grande Passe, or passage between the islands of Porquerolles and Port-cros.

That evening Southampton captured Utile by boarding, with Lieutenant Charles Lydiard at the head of the boarding party. Utile was armed with twenty-four 6-pounder guns and was under the protection of a battery. She had a crew of 136 men under the command of Citizen François Veza. The French put up a resistance during which they suffered eight killed, including Veza, and 17 wounded; Southampton had one man killed. [6] It was not until early the next morning that Southampton and Utile were finally able to get out of range of the guns of Fort de Brégançon.

Gorgon, Courageaux, and the hired armed cutter Fox were in company at the time, [7] and with the British fleet outside Toulon. They shared with Southampton in the proceeds of the capture, as did Barfleur, Bombay Castle, Egmont, and St George. [8]

British service and fate

The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Utile and commissioned her in July 1796 under Commander Lydiard, whose promotion was dated 22 July. Lydiard sailed her in the Adriatic as a convoy escort before returning to Britain in 1797. [9]

Utile arrived in Portsmouth on 21 August 1797 and was laid up. [10] She was immediately offered for sale, with the terms of sale including her copper sheathing and the proviso that the buyer post a bond of £2000 that he would break her up within a year. [11] She was sold on 7 June 1798 at Portsmouth for £610. [10]

Notes

  1. ↑ That said, like the French corvette  Sardine , Utile does not appear on the list of vessels captured, burnt, or otherwise disposed of. [4]

Citations

  1. ↑ Demerliac (1996), p. 115, #815.
  2. ↑ Winfield & Roberts (2015), p. 384.
  3. 1 2 Roche (2005), p. 453.
  4. ↑ "No. 13613". The London Gazette . 17 January 1794. pp. 44–45.
  5. ↑ Demerliac (1996), p. 115, #815.
  6. 1 2 "No. 13912". The London Gazette . 16 July 1796. p. 681.
  7. ↑ "No. 15557". The London Gazette . 8 February 1803. p. 165.
  8. ↑ "No. 14073". The London Gazette . 12 December 1797. p. 1195.
  9. ↑ Naval Chronicle, Vol. 19, p.415.
  10. 1 2 Winfield (2008), p. 232.
  11. ↑ "No. 14049". The London Gazette . 26 September 1797. pp. 937–936.

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Babet</i> (1794)

HMS Babet was a 20-gun sixth-rate post ship of the British Royal Navy. She had previously been a corvette of the French Navy under the name Babet, until her capture in 1794, during the French Revolutionary Wars. She served with the British, capturing several privateers and other vessels, and was at the Battle of Groix. She disappeared in the Caribbean in 1800, presumably having foundered.

Jean Bart may refer to one of the following ships of the French Navy or privateers named in honour of Jean Bart, a French naval commander and privateer.

French frigate <i>Justice</i> (1794)

Courageuse was a 40-gun Virginie-class frigate of the French Navy, completed in 1794 and renamed Justice in April 1795. The British and Ottomans captured her in 1801 at the siege of Alexandria and she became a prize to the Ottomans.

Mutine was an 18-gun Belliqueuse-class gun-brig of the French Navy, built to a design by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait, and launched in 1794 at Honfleur. She took part in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where the British captured her. She was recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Mutine, and eventually sold in 1803.

French frigate <i>Pomone</i> (1787) 40-gun frigate of the French Navy launched in 1785

Pomone was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, launched in 1785. The British captured her off the Île de Batz in April 1794 and incorporated her into the Royal Navy. Pomone subsequently had a relatively brief but active career in the British Navy off the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of France before suffering sufficient damage from hitting a rock to warrant being taken out of service and then broken up in 1803.

Sardine was a corvette of the French Navy, launched in 1771. The Royal Navy captured her at the Siege of Toulon but the French retook her when the Anglo-Spanish force retreated. The Royal Navy captured her again in 1796. She then served as HMS Sardine until the Royal Navy sold her in 1806.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Lydiard</span> Officer of the Royal Navy

Charles Lydiard was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

The French brig Alerte was launched in April 1787. The Royal Navy captured her at Toulon in August 1793, and renamed her HMS Vigilante. The British set her on fire when they evacuated Toulon in December of that year. After the French rebuilt her as Alerte, she served at the Battle of Aboukir Bay. The British recaptured her in June 1799 and took her into service as HMS Minorca. Minorca was sold in 1802.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Macnamara</span> Royal Navy officer (1768–1826)

Rear-Admiral James Macnamara was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

HMS <i>Southampton</i> (1757) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Southampton was the name ship of the 32-gun Southampton-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1757 and served for more than half a century until wrecked in 1812.

Perdrix was a corvette of the French Royal Navy, launched in 1784. The British captured her off Antigua in 1795 and she served briefly in the Royal Navy in the West Indies, where she captured a French privateer, before being broken up in 1798.

Pandour was a French a 14-gun gun-brig launched in 1780 as a cutter. The Royal Navy captured her in December 1795 and took her into service as Pandora, but she foundered in June 1797.

Flèche was a French corvette built by Louis-Hilarion Chapelle (cadet) and launched at Toulon, France in 1768. The British captured her at the Fall of Bastia in May 1794 and commissioned her into the Royal Navy under her existing name. She observed the naval Battle of Hyères Islands, but then was wrecked in 1795.

Poulette was a French Coquette-class corvette built to a design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb and launched in March 1781. She served the French navy until 1793 when the British captured her at Toulon in 1793. She served briefly in the Royal Navy, including at the battle of Genoa in 1795, until she was burned in October 1796 to prevent her falling into French hands.

HMS Avenger was a 16-gun ship-sloop of the British Royal Navy. Previously she was the French privateer Marseillaise and then naval corvette Vengeur, which the British Army captured during the battle for Martinique in 1794. The Admiralty sold her in 1802.

Seven ships of the French Navy have borne the name Sans-Culotte in honour of the Sans-culottes:

French corvette <i>Naïade</i> (1793)

The French corvette Naïade was launched at Brest in 1793 as a brig-corvette for the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1805 and took her into service as HMS Melville. She was sold for breaking up in 1808.

Belliquese was a French Navy 12-gun brig launched in 1793 as the name-vessel of her class, and sold in 1797 to serve as a privateer. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1798. Though the Royal Navy named her HMS Bellete and took her measurements, it never actually commissioned her; she was sold in 1801.

HMS Amethyst was launched in 1790 as the French frigate Perle. The British Royal Navy took possession of her at Toulon in 1793. She was wrecked in 1795 at Alderney.

El Corso was launched in Spain in 1791 as a naval brig. the British Royal Navy captured her in 1796 and took her into service as HMS Corso. She then served in the Mediterranean where she captured numerous small vessels, the great majority of which were merchant vessels. In 1802 she sailed to England. From July 1802 to her sale in September 1814 she served as a receiving ship.

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.