French frigate Créole (1797)

Créole was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, a one-off design by Jacques-Augustin Lamothe.[1] The French Navy loaned her to a privateer in 1797. Later, she served in the Brest squadron, took part in Ganteaume's expeditions of 1801 to Egypt, and was involved in the French acquisition of Santo Domingo (also known as the Era de Francia) and briefly detained Toussaint Louverture before he was brought to France. The 74-gun ships HMS Vanguard and HMS Cumberland captured her Santo Domingo on 30 June 1803. The Royal Navy took her into service but she foundered soon afterwards during an attempt to sail to Britain; her crew were rescued.

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Créole and HMS Creole.

History
France
Name: Créole
Builder: Louis and Antoine Crucy, Basse-Indres, Nantes
Laid down: 5 January 1794[1]
Launched: 27 June 1797
In service: January 1799
Captured: 30 June 1803 by the Royal Navy
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Creole
Acquired: 30 June 1803
Fate: Wrecked on 2 January 1804
General characteristics [2]
Displacement: 1,350 tons (French)
Length: 48.93 m (160.5 ft)
Beam: 11.91 m (39.1 ft)
Draught: 5.8 m (19 ft)
Complement:
  • 340 (wartime)
  • 260 (peaceime)
Armament:

Career

Early career

After her launch, Créole was fitted for four months before being lent 19 October 1797 to a privateer from Nantes. She was commissioned in the Navy on 29 April 1798 and started patrolling off Brest in February 1799.[1]

On 12 April, capitaine de vaisseau Pierre-Paulin Gourrège took command. On 26 April 1799, Créole departed Brest with the oceanic fleet and took part in Bruix' expedition of 1799 into the Mediterranean.[3] She was detached to Oneglia, along with Romaine and Vautour, to support the French invasion of Italy.[4]

The British hired armed cutter Sandwich was under the command of Lieutenant George Lempriere and cruising off the coast of Barcelona on 14 June 1799 when she sighted a large fleet. Lempriere believed the vessels to be a British fleet and sailed towards them. When the strange vessels did not reply to the recognition signals, Lempriere realized that they were enemy vessels and attempted to sail away.[5] The French fleet detached a lugger, possibly Affronteur,[6] to pursue Sandwich. A frigate joined the lugger in pursuit and towards evening the lugger opened fire with her bow chasers. The frigate then too opened fire, with Sandwich returning fire as best she could. By 1a.m. the frigate was within musket shot of Sandwich and any further resistance would have been futile. Lempriere then struck to Créole.[5]

In 1800, Créole was part of a division under contre-amiral Lacrosse, tasked to cruise off Morbihan and cut off the royalists from their British support. In order to avoid the British blockade, the squadron anchored to Camaret, but attracted the attention of the British and sailed back to harbour to avoid engagement. The division was retasked to ferry 4600 troops to Santo Domingo, but again ran into the British blockade, turned back and adjourned its mission.[7] During the cruise, Créole sustained some damage in a collision with Fidèle.[8]

Ganteaume's expeditions of 1801
Main article: Ganteaume's expeditions of 1801

On 27 January 1801, Créole departed Brest with a division under contre-amiral Ganteaume, tasked to ferry ammunitions and reinforcements to the Armée d'Égypte, taking part in Ganteaume's expeditions of 1801. After several false starts due to unfavourable weather or to the British blockade, Ganteaume eventually set sail on 23 February on a heavy sea which soon dispersed his squadron.[9] The next day, Créole rejoined Indivisible, and the two ships sailed together until they finally made contact with their division.[10]

Ganteaume reached Toulon on 18 February;[11] Gourrège left Créole to take command of the flagship Indivisible on 9 March.[12] The squadron set sail on 25 April. His crew much weakened by an epidemic, Ganteaume managed to establish a blockade of Elba on 1 May and bombard Portoferraio on 6 May, supporting the Siege of Porto Ferrajo, but he had to detach Formidable, Indomptable, Dessaix and Créole to ferry the sick to Livorno and return to Toulon.[13]

Créole took an incidental part in the Action of 24 June 1801, where the lone British 74-gun HMS Swiftsure met the French squadron and was captured after a running battle.[14]

Santo Domingo

On 9 January 1802, Créole departed Toulon with a division under contre-amiral Ganteaume, ferrying troops to Santo Domingo to consolidate the French occupation of Santo Domingo.[15] After Toussaint Louverture surrendered, he was embarked on Créole[16] before being transferred on Héros and ferried to France, where he died in prison. Boarding the frigate,[17] Louverture stated:

In overthrowing me you have cut down in Saint-Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty; it will spring up again from the roots, for they are many and they are deep.[18]

In 1803, Créole ferried troops to Port-au-Prince under Commander Jean-Marie-Pierre Lebastard,[1] travelling to Jean-Rabel from Cap-Français with 530 soldiers under General Morgan.[19][notes 1] Her crew suffered from the yellow fever that was endemic to the campaign, so that only 150 men were fit and the frigate was 177 short of her usual complement.[20] In the morning of 30 June, Créole met five British ships of the line, who closed in to investigate and gave chase.[20] Créole was unable to escape the ships of the line as Vanguard and Cumberland came up and flanked her. Vanguard opened fire, and after a single token gunshot, Créole struck to her overwhelmingly better-armed opponents.[19]

Fate

A prize crew conveyed Créole to Port Royal in Jamaica for repair. There the Royal Navy commissioned her as HMS Creole under Captain Austin Bissell.

In late 1803 Créole sailed for Britain with a prize crew and numerous French prisoners. Créole was in a poor state, and on 26 December she sprang a leak. The crew and prisoners manned her pumps but were unable to prevent the accumulation of water such that by 30 December the water was rising by two feet per hour. Two leaks became evident, one forward and one aft of the hold. The crew threw her guns, shot, iron ballast and some stores overboard, and slung a sail under the hull. Still, by 2 January the pumps were again unable to prevent the accumulation of water. The crew and the prisoners were exhausted and so Bissell decided to abandon ship. Cumberland came up to take everyone off Créole. The last men left on 3 January, at which time she sank beneath the waves at 40°42′N 51°24′W.[21]

Notes, citations, and references

Notes
  1. Troude (Batailles navales, p.288) gives a figure of 450.

Citations
  1. Roche, Dictionnaire des Bâtiments, p. 134
  2. Winfield and Roberts (2015), p.141.
  3. Troude, Batailles navales, p. 155
  4. Troude, Batailles navales, p. 157
  5. Hepper (1994), p.91.
  6. Winfield and Roberts (2015), p.246.
  7. Troude, Batailles navales, p. 188
  8. Fonds Marine, p.237
  9. Troude, Batailles navales, p. 228
  10. Troude, Batailles navales, p. 229
  11. Troude, Batailles navales, p. 230
  12. Quintin, Dictionnaire des capitaines, p. 157
  13. Troude, Batailles navales, p. 231
  14. Clowes, p. 453
  15. Troude, Batailles navales, p. 270
  16. TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE FRANÇOIS DOMINIQUE TOUSSAINT dit (1743-1803)
  17. Le rêve américain et caraïbe de Bonaparte : Le destin de la Louisiane française. L'expédition de Saint-Domingue, Napoleon.org
  18. Abbott, Elizabeth (1988). Haiti: An insider's history of the rise and fall of the Duvaliers. Simon & Schuster. p. viii ISBN 0-671-68620-8
  19. James, p. 188
  20. Troude, Batailles navales, p. 288
  21. Hepper (1994), p. 103.

References
  • Clowes, William Laird (1997) [1900]. "London". The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to 1900, Volume V. Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-014-0.
  • Fonds Marine. Campagnes (opérations ; divisions et stations navales ; missions diverses). Inventaire de la sous-série Marine BB4. Tome premier : BB4 1 à 482 (1790-1826)
  • Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
  • James, William (2002) [1827]. The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume 3, 1800–1805. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-907-7.
  • Quintin, Danielle et Bernard (2003). Dictionnaire des capitaines de Vaisseau de Napoléon. S.P.M. ISBN 2-901952-42-9.
  • Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870. p. 134. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
  • Troude, Onésime-Joachim (1867). Batailles navales de la France. 3. Challamel ainé.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.
  • 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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