HMS Belleisle (1761)

Belleisle was the French East Indiaman Bertin, launched in 1760 that the British Royal Navy captured in 1761 and commissioned as the third rate HMS Belleisle.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Belleisle.

Plan of Belleisle drawn in 1761, a captured French East Indiaman, prior to being fitted as a 64-gun third rate, two-decker.
History
France
Name: Belleisle
Launched: 1760
Captured: 3 April 1761, by Royal Navy
Great Britain
Name: HMS Belleisle
Acquired: 3 April 1761
Fate: Sold, 1819
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: 64-gun third-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1494​26⁄94 (bm)
Length: 168 ft 5 1⁄2 in (51.3 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 45 ft 0 1⁄2 in (13.7 m)
Depth of hold: 20 ft 7 in (6.27 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Armament: 64 guns of various weights of shot

Capture

HMS Hero and HMS Venus captured Bertin on 3 April 1761 and sent her into Plymouth. There the Royal Navy purchased her.[1] (The prize crew from Hero shared in the proceeds of Venus and Hero's capture of the French privateer Lyon on 6 April 1761.)[2]

Career

Belleisle was fitted in August 1761 and fitted in 1762.[1] She shared in the prize money awarded to the British squadron that captured the French East Indiaman St Priest on 11 March 1762.[3] Belleisle was paid off in July 1763.[1]

She was fitted as a guard ship at Plymouth in January 1764, and then as a troopship in May 1765 and again in March 1768. Between March 1771 amd April 1772 she underwent a small to middling repair at Plymouth.[1]

Between August 1776 and January 1777, she again underwent fitting as a guard ship. She was refitted between December 1777 and February 1778. She twice underwent fitting at Plymouth for the East Indies in April to June 1778 and in February 1779.[1]

Between March and June 1772 she was at Chatham, receiving an all-carronade armament and the masts of a 60-gun ship. She was paid off in March 1783.[1]

Fate

Belleisle was converted to a lazarette between August and December 1784. She was later transferred to Customs and struck from the Navy List. She was sold on 3 February 1819.[1]

Citations
  1. Winfield (2008), p. 103.
  2. "No. 10221". The London Gazette. 26 June 1762. p. 4.
  3. "No. 10325". The London Gazette. 25 June 1763. p. 4.

References
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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