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HMS Vengeance (1800)
Encyclopedia
The Vengeance was a Résistance class frigate 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...
, noted for her fight with during the Quasi-War
Quasi-War
The Quasi-War was an undeclared war fought mostly at sea between the United States and French Republic from 1798 to 1800. In the United States, the conflict was sometimes also referred to as the Franco-American War, the Pirate Wars, or the Half-War.-Background:The Kingdom of France had been a...
, an inconclusive engagement that left both ships heavily damaged. During 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...
, hunted Vengeance down and captured her after a sharp action. She was recommissioned in 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...
as the 38-gun fifth rate HMS Vengeance, but the British apparently never returned her to sea-going service. Accounts are divided as to her eventual fate. She may have been broken up in 1803 after grounding in 1801, or continued as a prison ship
Prison ship
A prison ship, historically sometimes called a prison hulk, is a vessel used as a prison, often to hold convicts awaiting transportation to penal colonies. This practice was popular with the British government in the 18th and 19th centuries....
until 1814.
Construction
Vengeance was one of two frigates built to Pierre Degay's design of 1793, initially ordered as the Bonne Foi, and launched on 8 November 1794. She was one of the larger classes of frigate, armed with 24-pounders.French career
On 8 August 1796, off GuadeloupeGuadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
, Vengeance encountered the 32-gun Mermaid, under the command of Captain Robber Waller Otway. The subsequent action was prolonged but indecisive. When the 40-gun British frigate Beaulieu, came up Vengeance retired to the shelter of the batteries of Basseterre. Mermaid had suffered no casualties; Vengeance had lost 12 killed and 26 wounded.
Within the month, on 25 August, Vengeance again engaged the British when she chased the 26-gun Raison, Captain John Poo Beresford
Sir John Beresford, 1st Baronet
Admiral Sir John Poo Beresford, 1st Baronet, GCH was an officer in the Royal Navy who rose to the rank of Second Sea Lord. He was a Tory politician in the United Kingdom.-Naval career:...
, to the west of the Gulf of Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
. After the vessels had exchanged fire for two hours, foggy weather helped Raison escape, but not before she had suffered three killed and six wounded. Vengeance suffered six killed and an unknown number of wounded.
Vengeance vs Constellation
On 31 January 1800, during the Quasi-WarQuasi-War
The Quasi-War was an undeclared war fought mostly at sea between the United States and French Republic from 1798 to 1800. In the United States, the conflict was sometimes also referred to as the Franco-American War, the Pirate Wars, or the Half-War.-Background:The Kingdom of France had been a...
, Vengeance engaged the . Vengeance broke off the action despite having a broadside of 559 pounds compared to the American vessel's 372 pounds.
The Constellation had sailed under Captain Thomas Truxtun
Thomas Truxtun
Thomas Truxtun was an American naval officer who rose to the rank of commodore.Born near Hempstead, New York on Long Island, Truxtun had little formal education before joining the crew of the British merchant ship Pitt at the age of twelve...
from Saint Kitts
Saint Kitts
Saint Kitts Saint Kitts Saint Kitts (also known more formally as Saint Christopher Island (Saint-Christophe in French) is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean...
on 30 January, and came across the Vengeance the following day. The Vengeance was bound for France under Capitaine de Vaisseau Citizen F. M. Pitot, carrying passengers and specie, and initially attempted to outrun the Constellation. Truxton gave chase, and eventually came within range during the evening. After Pitot refused a request to surrender, the two began to exchange broadsides, with the Vengeance aiming high to damage the Constellations rigging.
The action lasted until one o'clock the following morning, having been fought in poor light, with the ships often ill defined shapes to each other. The Vengeances guns eventually fell silent and Pitot may even have struck his colours, but the Constellation had suffered considerable damage to her masts and rigging, eventually losing her main mast at the conclusion of the action. Constellation was therefore unable to take possession of the Frenchman and the two ships drifted apart while the Americans repaired their damage. The Americans believed the Vengeance had sunk, but her captain actually had managed to sail her as far as Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, where he ran her onto the beach to prevent her from sinking. Estimates of French casualties ran to 160, while the Constellation had 15 killed and 25 wounded. Pitot recorded that his guns had fired 742 rounds during the action, while the Constellation had fired 1,129.
Capture
The French repaired Vengeance and returned her to service. Then on 20 August 1800 the frigate , under the command of Captain David Milne, attacked her in the Mona Passage. Both ships sustained heavy casualties; 13 crew were killed aboard the Seine, 29 were wounded, and the ship was cut up. The Vengeance, still under the command of Pitot, sustained worse damage and surrendered after about an hour and a half of hard fighting. One source estimates that Vengeance suffered some 35 men killed and some 70 wounded before she struck.At the time of her capture Vengeance was armed with 28 18-pounders on her main deck, 16 12-pounders and eight 42-pounder carronades on her Quarter-deck and Forecastle, brass swivel guns
Swivel gun
The term swivel gun usually refers to a small cannon, mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to...
on the gunwale, and shifting guns on the main and quarter decks. All these measures were in French pounds. In English measures the broadsides in this case were 498 pounds for Seine and 434 for Vengeance. Crew sizes were 281 men and 326 men, respectively.Clowes reports that each ship appears to have fought with an extra gun firing from a normally empty port on the engaged side. He also mentions a French account that gives Vengeance only 40 guns and a broadside of 377 pounds.
The naval historian
Maritime history
Maritime history is the study of human activity at sea. It covers a broad thematic element of history that often uses a global approach, although national and regional histories remain predominant...
William James
William James (naval historian)
William M. James was a British lawyer turned naval historian who wrote important naval histories of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793-1815.-Career:...
subsequently exaggerated the engagement in favour of the French. He declared that as Seine had done what Constellation could not, British naval forces were "more potent than American thunder". In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Seine 20 Augt. 1800" to any surviving crew members of Seine that came forward to claim it.
British career
Vengeance was re-armed with 18-pounders but not initially commissioned, and having been damaged by grounding in 1801, she became a receiving ship at PortsmouthPortsmouth
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...
. Some records indicate that she was then broken up in 1803; others suggest that she served as a prison ship until 1814.
The National Maritime Museum
National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings forming part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, it also incorporates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,...
reports that she was commissioned as a prison ship
Prison ship
A prison ship, historically sometimes called a prison hulk, is a vessel used as a prison, often to hold convicts awaiting transportation to penal colonies. This practice was popular with the British government in the 18th and 19th centuries....
at Portsmouth in 1808 under Lieutenant A. Gilmour. Lieutenant J. Graves, who served until 1811, replaced him in 1810. Lieutenant G. King commanded her in 1813, and Lieutenant J. Graves commanded her in 1814.