French corvette Moineau (1794)

Moineau was the former merchantman Spartiate, which the French Navy requisitioned to serve as 16-gun corvette on the Île de France station between 1794 and 1797.

History
France
Name: Moineau
Namesake: Sparrow
In service: May 1794 (French Navy)
Out of service: 1797 (left naval service)
General characteristics
Propulsion: Sail
Complement: 172,[1] or 190[2]
Armament: 16 or 26 guns[Note 1]
Armour: Timber

Career

In May 1794, the French Navy brought Spartiate into naval service as Moineau.[3] She then served in the naval station of Île de France, carrying out missions to Batavia.

In June 1796, the French Directory's executive agents Baco and Burnel, arrived at Mauritius with the naval division under Sercey[4] and set out to abolish slavery, in application of the decree of 16 Pluviose Year II on the abolition of slavery.[5] This alienated the colonists and Governor Malartic; a militia stormed Baco and Burnel's quarters and forcibly put them aboard Moineau.

Malartic then ordered Commander (and capitaine de frégate) Tayeau, the captain of Moineau,[3] to carry Baco and Burnel to Batavia.[6][Note 2]

Once Moineau was at sea, Baco and Burnel ordered Tayeau to bring them to France.[9] Moineau then sailed for Rochefort.[6] Upon Moineau's arrival, Tayeau was commended for his action.[6]

On the way back to France, Moineau first stopped at Foulepointe, a French factory on the coast of Madagascar to reprovision. Next, near the Cape of Good Hope, Moineau encountered Lady Shore, which was sailing to Bengal on behalf of the British East India Company.[Note 3] Moineau captured Lady Shore on 19 July. After stripping her of much of her cargo, Tayeau let her go on 22 July, permitting her captain to take her into the Cape.

Fate

Moineau was returned to her original owner in 1797.[3]

Notes, citations, and references

Notes
  1. One British account give her armament as 26 × 9-pounder guns. This information comes from a journal by James Wilson, who describes himself as the commander of Lady Shore.[2] The French navy used 8-pounder long guns, not 9-pounders, but the discrepancy may represent nothing more than an approximate equivalence, the French pound being heavier than the British pound. The discrepancy in the number of guns, with an American source supporting the figure of 26, may have resulted from Moineau being pierced for 26 but only carrying 16, or from a latter expansion of her armament. Another source gives her armament as twenty-six 8 and 4-pounders.[1]
  2. Lecomte states that Moineau was to maroon them on the shores of Madagascar.[7] Other accounts have Malartic giving Tayeau sealed orders to take them to the Philippines and land them at Manila or on the coast of one of its islands.[8][9]
  3. Lady Shore was an "extra ship", not an East Indiaman. That is, she was on a short-term contract to the EIC, not a long-term contract.

Citations
  1. Winfield and Roberts (2015), pp. 177–8.
  2. Pascoe, Gavin (24 September 2008) South Sea Miscellany: Prior adventures of the Lady Shore. - Accessed 11 May 2013.
  3. Roche, p. 312
  4. Guérin, vol.6, p. 192
  5. Wanquet, p. 198
  6. Rouvier, p. 430
  7. Lecomte (1836), Vol.2, p. 100.
  8. James (1837), Vol. 1, p. 388.
  9. Hennequin, vol.2, p. 200.

References
  • Hennequin, Joseph François Gabriel (1835). Biographie maritime ou notices historiques sur la vie et les campagnes des marins célèbres français et étrangers (in French). 2. Paris: Regnault éditeur.
  • Lecomte, Jules (1836). Chroniques de la marine française: de 1789 à 1830, d'après les documents officiels (in French). 2. H. Souverain.
  • James, William (1837). The Naval History of Great Britain, from the Declaration of War by France in 1793, to the Accession of George IV. R. Bentley.
  • Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. p. 367. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
  • Rouvier, Charles (1868). Histoire des marins français sous la République, de 1789 à 1803 (in French). Arthus Bertrand.
  • Wanquet, Claude (2003) Baco and Burnel's attempt to implement Abolition in the Mascarenes in 1796: Analysis of a Failure and its Consequences, in Marcel Dorigny, The abolitions of slavery, Berghahn Books.
  • Winfield, Rif & Stephen S Roberts (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786 - 1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. (Seaforth Publishing). ISBN 9781848322042


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