French brig Duc de Chartres (1780 Le Havre)

The French brig Duc de Chartres was built between 1779 and 1780 at Le Havre as a 24-gun privateer. As a privateer she captured one British warship before in 1781 the Royal Navy captured her. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Duc de Chartres. She then captured several American privateers and armed merchant vessels, and one French naval corvette in a noteworthy single-ship action. The Navy sold Duc de Chartres in 1784.

For other ships with the same name, see French brig Duc de Chartres (1780 Saint-Malo).
History
France
Name: Duc de Chartres
Builder: Le Havre[1]
Launched: 1780
Captured: Spring 1781
Great Britain
Name: HMS Duc de Chartres
Fate: Sold July 1784
General characteristics [2]
Tons burthen:
  • Privateer: 220[1] (French; of load)
  • HMS: 426​7⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 109 ft 2 in (33.3 m) (overall)
  • 86 ft 5 1⁄2 in (26.4 m) (keel)
Beam: 30 ft 5 1⁄4 in (9.3 m)
Depth of hold: 11 ft 11 1⁄2 in (3.6 m) (overall)
Propulsion: Sail
Sail plan: brig
Complement: HMS:125
Armament:
  • At capture: 18 guns
  • HMS
    • Upperdeck:18 × 6-pounder guns
    • QD:4 × 12-pounder carronades
Armour: Timber

Privateer

Duc de Chartres captured HMS Pluto, a 16-gun sloop, on 30 November 1780. Pluto, under the command of Commander Thomas Geary, was about 140 miles south west of the Scilly Isles in drifting fog when she sighted a ship. Cautious, Pluto prepared for action and when the two vessels passed each other, they exchanged broadsides. Duc de Chartres turned and gave chase, catching up with her quarry. Unable to escape, and outgunned, Pluto struck.[3][Note 1]

In spring 1781, Admiral George Darby sailed a fleet to Gibraltar to relieve the siege for a second time. On the way the fleet captured Duc de Chartres, the Spanish frigate Santa Leucadia, and the French brig Trois Amis. Although HMS Cumberland executed the actual capture of Duc de Chartres, the entire British fleet of 42 vessels shared in the resulting prize money.[5]

At the time of her capture Duc de Chartres was under the command of Jean-Baptiste l'Écolier.[4] The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Duc de Chartres. The capture of Leocadia took place in the action of 1 May 1781, off Brest. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Leocadia.

HMS Duc de Chartres

Between 26 May and 17 September Duc de Chartres was at Portsmouth undergoing coppering and fitting. The Royal Navy commissioned Duc de Chartres under Commander John Child Purvis on 7 October 1781 and he immediately sailed her for North America.[2]

Around August 1782 Duc de Chartres captured the Connecticut letter of marque schooner Turn of Times. She was armed with four guns and had a crew of 25 men under the command of John Cook. She had sailed to Demerara and was on her return voyage when the British captured her and sent her into Bermuda.[6]

On 9 August 1782, Duc de Chartres encountered the French navy's corvette Aigle, of 22 guns and 136 men. In the subsequent hour-long action, Aigle lost 13 men killed, including her captain, and 15 wounded; Duc de Chartres had no casualties.[7][Note 2]

On 15 March 1783 the British frigates Astraea and Vestal, and Duc de Chartres captured the Massachusetts letter of marque Julius Caesar.[9] Julius Caesar was a privateer of eighteen 9-pounder guns and carried a crew of 100 men under the command of Captain Thomas Benson, of Salem. Her captors sent her into New York City where the Vice admiralty court condemned her.[10]

Duc de Chartres captured the Connecticut armed brig Thetis on 2 April. Thetis, of 100 tons (bm) and six guns, had a crew of 21 men under the command of Robert Colfax. She was tried and condemned at New York.[11]

The highly successful action against Aigle led, on 1 September 1783, to Purvis receiving promotion to post-captain.[12]

Commander John Shairp replaced Purvis. Then in 1784 Captain William Afleck replaced Shairp for the purpose of sailing Duc de Chartres back to Britain.[2]

Fate

Duc de Chartres was paid off in May 1784. The Navy sold her on 1 July for £700.[2]

Notes, citations and references

Notes

  1. Pluto's subsequent fate is unknown.[4]
  2. This is probably the ex-British privateer brig Eagle captured in March 1780 at Saint Eustache in the Antilles. Arrived at Lorient in January 1782 and listed as a corvette with twenty 6-pounder guns. A French source mis-identifies Aigle as HMS Eagle, and gives her dates of service as 1780-1783. It describes her as having sixteen 6-pounder guns and six swivel guns.[8]

Citations

  1. Demerliac (1996), p. 182, #1777.
  2. Winfield (2007), p. 290.
  3. Hepper (1994), p. 60.
  4. Demerliac (1996), p. 146, #1213.
  5. "No. 1226". The London Gazette. 12 January 1782. p. 2.
  6. American War of Independence at Sea: Turn of Times. Accessed 13 October 2016.
  7. "No. 12381". The London Gazette. 19 October 1782. p. 1.
  8. Demerliac (1996), p. 80, №515.
  9. "No. 12804". The London Gazette. 14 November 1786. p. 553.
  10. American War of Independence at Sea: Julius Caesar. Accessed 13 October 2016.
  11. American War of Independence at Sea: Thetis. Accessed 13 October 2016.
  12. Gentleman's Magazine, (1825), Vol. 21, p.563.

References

  • Demerliac, Alain (1996). La Marine de Louis XVI: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1774 à 1792 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 9782906381230. OCLC 468324725.
  • Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
  • Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1844157006.
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