HMS Hardi (1797)

HMS Hardi was a French privateer built at Cowes c. 1795 that the Royal Navy captured in 1797 and sold in 1800.

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Hardi, HMS Hardi, and HMS Hardy.

History
France
Name: Hardi
Launched: c.1795
Commissioned: October 1796
Captured: April 1797
Great Britain
Name: HMS Hardi
Acquired: April 1797 by capture
Fate: Unknown
General characteristics
Propulsion: Sails
Complement: 130 (at capture)
Armament: 18 × 8-pounder long guns (at capture)

Florentin Lavallée commissioned Hardi at Brest in October 1796. She was armed with eighteen 8-pounder guns and had a crew of 130-164 men under the command of Captain Cousin.[1]

In February 1797 Hardi, Captain Cousell, captured Antelope.[2] Antelope had been sailing from Charleston to London when she was taken.[Note 1]

Late in March 1797 Vice-Admiral Lord Kingsmill received intelligence that a French cruiser had been seen off the Skellocks on the coast of Ireland.[4] Kingsmill dispatched HMS Hazard on 28 March, and on 1 April Hazard found the French vessel. After a chase of seven hours, Hazard caught her quarry, but only because the privateer had lost both topmasts. The privateer was the brig Hardi, of 18 guns and 130 men.[4] (Another source gives her complement as 164 men.[5]) Hardi had been built at Cowes, about two years earlier, for the Spaniards. Hardi had left Brest on 17 March and during her cruise had escaped two British frigates that had chased her. She had captured only one prize, a small Portuguese vessel of little value.[4] Hardi arrived at Portsmouth on 16 April.

The Navy acquired Hardi, and classified as a sloop of 18 guns. There is no record of her having active service.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

  1. Cousell was actually William Cowell, an American, not above preying on American vessels as well as English.[3] On 11 October 1798, he was captain of the French privateer Valour, which the British privateer Lord Hawke captured.

Citations

  1. Demerliac (1999), p. 252, n° 2167.
  2. "News". London Chronicle (London, England), 18–21 February 1797; Issue 5889.
  3. Williams (2009), p. 63.
  4. "No. 14000". The London Gazette. 8 April 1797. p. 328.
  5. Norman (1887), p. 432.

References

  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
  • Demerliac, Alain (1799). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 A 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 2-906381-24-1.
  • Norman, Charles Boswell (1887). The Corsairs of France. S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington.
  • Williams, Greg H. (2009). The French assault on American shipping, 1793-1813: a history and comprehensive record of merchant marine losses. McFarland. ISBN 9780786438372.
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