HMS Modeste (1793)
Encyclopedia
HMS Modeste was a 36-gun fifth rate frigate
of the Royal Navy
. She had previously been a ship of the French Navy
under the name Modeste. Launched in France
in 1786, she served during the first actions of the French Revolutionary Wars
until being captured while in harbour at Genoa
, in circumstances disputed by the French and British, and which created a diplomatic incident. Taken into British service she spent the rest of the French Revolutionary and most of the Napoleonic Wars
under the white ensign
. She served with distinction in the East Indies
, capturing several privateers and enemy vessels, including the French corvette
Iéna
. She also saw service in a variety of roles, as a troopship
, a receiving ship, and a floating battery
, until finally being broken up in 1814, as the Napoleonic Wars drew to a close.
frigate
built at Toulon
between February 1785 and January 1787, having been launched there on 18 March 1786. In September 1793 she entered the neutral port of Genoa, where according to British reports, her captain was seized by the French Republican
agent in the port, as he suspected the frigate as having come from the Royalist-held Toulon on some secret mission. The British had been dissatisfied with the actions of the neutral Genoa, in allowing the Modeste and two French tartane
s to 'insult' and 'molest' the frigate while she was also in Genoa. Furthermore the French were alleged to have seized a ship travelling under an assurance of safe passage from Lord Hood
. The British envoy in Genoa, Francis Drake
, was instructed to seek reparations from the Genoese, and to put a stop to the shipment of grain to the French republicans.
Drake was unsuccessful, so Hood sent Rear-Admiral John Gell
to Genoa with orders to capture Modeste, the two tartanes and any other French ships. Drake was to secure assurances from the Genoese that they would comply with Hood's wishes, or failing that, Gell was to blockade the port. Gell was also to travel to Leghorn
and capture the French frigate Impérieuse
, and instruct the British envoy to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany
, Lord Hervey
, to demand the expulsion of the French Jacobins. To back up these demands Gell had a squadron consisting of , the 74-gun ships , and the French Scipion, and the smaller vessels , , , , , and .
The squadron entered Genoa on 17 October and Bedford ranged alongside Modeste. Accounts then differ as to what happened next. A later French version described that the British ship had moored alongside, and her master had civilly requested the French ship remove a boat that was hampering the British manoeuvres. The French readily agreed, but half an hour later the British captain asked the French to hoist the white flag, saying that he did not know what the tricolour was. Offended, the French refused, whereupon the British suddenly attacked the unprepared French, and captured the frigate. One British account states that Bedford came alongside and after warning the French not to resist, captured her after a short struggle, while another stated that while the fort was saluting the arrival of Rear-Admiral Gell, the French on Modeste came up on deck and behaved with such insolent gestures and language that the British attacked them. The British reported that two Frenchmen had been killed during the fighting on the tartanes, while French sources alternately reported five dead, thirty wounded, or between 30 and 40 killed. The attack outraged the Genoese, who were being threatened both by Drake and by representatives of the French republic, and created a diplomatic incident. They finally bowed to French pressure, and ordered the expulsion of all foreigners with the exception of the French. All diplomatic ties were broken and in response Gell's squadron began to blockade Genoa, capturing neutral merchants bound for the city.
. After some service in the Mediterranean Martin sailed her back to Britain, arriving in Portsmouth
on 4 December 1794. Modeste was then laid up, until being converted to a receiving ship in 1798, and was then fitted out between August and October 1799 to sail to the Thames. On arriving at Deptford
in November she was fitted out as a troopship
, a process that lasted until June 1800. She was commissioned in June that year under Commander Martin Hinton as a 24-gun troopship. She spent some time in the Mediterranean under Hinton in 1801, but was back in Britain soon afterwards, being fitted out at Woolwich
between September and October 1803 for service with Trinity House
. She was then used as a floating battery
in 1804.
Modeste then underwent a middling repair at Woolwich between April and November 1806 and was recommissioned in October that year under Captain George Elliot
. Elliot departed Britain on 15 February 1807, bound for China
and the East Indies
. On 8 October 1808 he chased down and captured the 18-gun French corvette
Iéna
while in the Bay of Bengal
. Iéna, under the command of Captain Maurice, was bound for the Persian Gulf
with despatches, and had captured several ships. When taken by Modeste she was carrying 25,000 dollars she had taken from a vessel named Swallow, and had also captured an Arab vessel named Frederick, which Elliot retook. Iéna had mistaken Modeste for another merchant vessel and had tried to close on her. On discovering her mistake she had tried to escape, but had been caught after a nine hour chase and exchange of fire that left four or five Frenchmen dead or wounded, and one man killed and one wounded on Modeste.
On 15 July 1809 boats from Modeste and cut out the 8-gun Tuijneelar in the Sunda Straits. Elliot then took part in the operations to capture Java
between August and September 1811, during the Anglo-Dutch Java War
. Elliot left Modeste in 1812, and was succeeded by Captain James Crawford, who on 6 February 1813 captured the 14-gun privateer
Furet off Sicily
. Modeste was finally placed in ordinary
at Woolwich in 1813 and after spending a year in this state, was broken up at Deptford in June 1814.
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. She had previously been a ship of the French Navy
French Navy
The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...
under the name Modeste. Launched in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 1786, she served during the first actions of the French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
until being captured while in harbour at Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, in circumstances disputed by the French and British, and which created a diplomatic incident. Taken into British service she spent the rest of the French Revolutionary and most of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
under the white ensign
White Ensign
The White Ensign or St George's Ensign is an ensign flown on British Royal Navy ships and shore establishments. It consists of a red St George's Cross on a white field with the Union Flag in the upper canton....
. She served with distinction in the East Indies
East Indies
East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines...
, capturing several privateers and enemy vessels, including the French corvette
Corvette
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...
Iéna
French corvette Revenant
Revenant was a 20-gun privateer corvette designed by Robert Surcouf for commerce raiding. She was later requisitioned for service in the French Navy, and was renamed Iéna, but was subsequently captured by and served in the Royal Navy as HMS Victor...
. She also saw service in a variety of roles, as a troopship
Troopship
A troopship is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime...
, a receiving ship, and a floating battery
Floating battery
A floating battery is a kind of armed watercraft, often improvised or experimental, which carries a heavy armament but has few other qualities as a warship.An early appearance was during the Great Siege of Gibraltar....
, until finally being broken up in 1814, as the Napoleonic Wars drew to a close.
French service and capture
Modeste was a Magicienne-classMagicienne class frigate
The Magicienne class was a type of twelve 32-gun frigates of the French Navy. They were designed by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb.* MagicienneThe Magicienne class was a type of twelve 32-gun frigates of the French Navy...
frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
built at Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
between February 1785 and January 1787, having been launched there on 18 March 1786. In September 1793 she entered the neutral port of Genoa, where according to British reports, her captain was seized by the French Republican
French First Republic
The French First Republic was founded on 22 September 1792, by the newly established National Convention. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First French Empire in 1804 under Napoleon I...
agent in the port, as he suspected the frigate as having come from the Royalist-held Toulon on some secret mission. The British had been dissatisfied with the actions of the neutral Genoa, in allowing the Modeste and two French tartane
Tartane
A Tartane or tartan was a small ship used both as a fishing ship and for coastal trading in the Mediterranean. They were in use for over 300 years until the late 19th century. A tartane had a single mast on which was rigged a large lateen sail, and with a bowsprit and fore-sail. When the wind was...
s to 'insult' and 'molest' the frigate while she was also in Genoa. Furthermore the French were alleged to have seized a ship travelling under an assurance of safe passage from Lord Hood
Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood
Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood was a British Admiral known particularly for his service in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars...
. The British envoy in Genoa, Francis Drake
Francis Drake (diplomat)
Francis Drake , of Yardbury and Wells, was a British diplomat, holding positions at Genoa and Munich during the Napoleonic Wars.Francis Drake was the son of Rev. Francis Drake, Vicar of Seaton and Beer...
, was instructed to seek reparations from the Genoese, and to put a stop to the shipment of grain to the French republicans.
Drake was unsuccessful, so Hood sent Rear-Admiral John Gell
John Gell (Royal Navy officer)
Admiral John Gell was from the Gell and Eyre families of Hopton Hall in Derbyshire. He served with the Royal Navy, fighting in India and taking part in the occupation of Toulon.Gell was a commander in the Royal Navy for over...
to Genoa with orders to capture Modeste, the two tartanes and any other French ships. Drake was to secure assurances from the Genoese that they would comply with Hood's wishes, or failing that, Gell was to blockade the port. Gell was also to travel to Leghorn
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
and capture the French frigate Impérieuse
HMS Imperieuse (1793)
The Impérieuse was a 40-gun Minerve class frigate of the French Navy. She later served in the Royal Navy as HMS Imperieuse and HMS Unite.-French service and capture:...
, and instruct the British envoy to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was a central Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Duchy of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence...
, Lord Hervey
John Hervey, Lord Hervey
John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey , English courtier and political writer and memoirist, was the eldest son of John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, by his second wife, Elizabeth. He was known as Lord Hervey from 1723, upon the death of his elder half-brother, Carr, the only son of his father's first wife,...
, to demand the expulsion of the French Jacobins. To back up these demands Gell had a squadron consisting of , the 74-gun ships , and the French Scipion, and the smaller vessels , , , , , and .
The squadron entered Genoa on 17 October and Bedford ranged alongside Modeste. Accounts then differ as to what happened next. A later French version described that the British ship had moored alongside, and her master had civilly requested the French ship remove a boat that was hampering the British manoeuvres. The French readily agreed, but half an hour later the British captain asked the French to hoist the white flag, saying that he did not know what the tricolour was. Offended, the French refused, whereupon the British suddenly attacked the unprepared French, and captured the frigate. One British account states that Bedford came alongside and after warning the French not to resist, captured her after a short struggle, while another stated that while the fort was saluting the arrival of Rear-Admiral Gell, the French on Modeste came up on deck and behaved with such insolent gestures and language that the British attacked them. The British reported that two Frenchmen had been killed during the fighting on the tartanes, while French sources alternately reported five dead, thirty wounded, or between 30 and 40 killed. The attack outraged the Genoese, who were being threatened both by Drake and by representatives of the French republic, and created a diplomatic incident. They finally bowed to French pressure, and ordered the expulsion of all foreigners with the exception of the French. All diplomatic ties were broken and in response Gell's squadron began to blockade Genoa, capturing neutral merchants bound for the city.
British career
Modeste was taken into service with the Royal Navy, retaining her original name, and was commissioned in November 1793 under Captain Thomas Byam MartinThomas Byam Martin
Admiral Sir Thomas Byam Martin, GCB was a highly influential British Royal Navy officer who served at sea during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and then as a naval administrator until his death in 1854...
. After some service in the Mediterranean Martin sailed her back to Britain, arriving in Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
on 4 December 1794. Modeste was then laid up, until being converted to a receiving ship in 1798, and was then fitted out between August and October 1799 to sail to the Thames. On arriving at Deptford
Deptford
Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Navy Dockyards.Deptford and the docks are...
in November she was fitted out as a troopship
Troopship
A troopship is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime...
, a process that lasted until June 1800. She was commissioned in June that year under Commander Martin Hinton as a 24-gun troopship. She spent some time in the Mediterranean under Hinton in 1801, but was back in Britain soon afterwards, being fitted out at Woolwich
Woolwich
Woolwich is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created...
between September and October 1803 for service with Trinity House
Trinity House
The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond is the official General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales and other British territorial waters...
. She was then used as a floating battery
Floating battery
A floating battery is a kind of armed watercraft, often improvised or experimental, which carries a heavy armament but has few other qualities as a warship.An early appearance was during the Great Siege of Gibraltar....
in 1804.
Modeste then underwent a middling repair at Woolwich between April and November 1806 and was recommissioned in October that year under Captain George Elliot
George Elliot (1784–1863)
Admiral Sir George Elliot, KCB , was a Royal Navy officer who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and the First Opium War....
. Elliot departed Britain on 15 February 1807, bound for China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and the East Indies
East Indies
East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines...
. On 8 October 1808 he chased down and captured the 18-gun French corvette
Corvette
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...
Iéna
French corvette Revenant
Revenant was a 20-gun privateer corvette designed by Robert Surcouf for commerce raiding. She was later requisitioned for service in the French Navy, and was renamed Iéna, but was subsequently captured by and served in the Royal Navy as HMS Victor...
while in the Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...
. Iéna, under the command of Captain Maurice, was bound for the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
with despatches, and had captured several ships. When taken by Modeste she was carrying 25,000 dollars she had taken from a vessel named Swallow, and had also captured an Arab vessel named Frederick, which Elliot retook. Iéna had mistaken Modeste for another merchant vessel and had tried to close on her. On discovering her mistake she had tried to escape, but had been caught after a nine hour chase and exchange of fire that left four or five Frenchmen dead or wounded, and one man killed and one wounded on Modeste.
On 15 July 1809 boats from Modeste and cut out the 8-gun Tuijneelar in the Sunda Straits. Elliot then took part in the operations to capture Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
between August and September 1811, during the Anglo-Dutch Java War
Anglo-Dutch Java War
The Anglo-Dutch Java War in 1810–1811 was a war between Britain and the Netherlands , fought entirely on the Island of Java in colonial Indonesia.-Background:...
. Elliot left Modeste in 1812, and was succeeded by Captain James Crawford, who on 6 February 1813 captured the 14-gun privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
Furet off Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
. Modeste was finally placed in ordinary
Reserve fleet
A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....
at Woolwich in 1813 and after spending a year in this state, was broken up at Deptford in June 1814.