French frigate Caroline (1806)

For other ships of the same name, see French ship Caroline.

Career (France)
Name:	Caroline
Namesake:	Caroline Bonaparte
Ordered:	24 April 1804
Builder:	Anvers shipyard, plans by Sané
Laid down:	March 1804
Launched:	15 August 1806
Captured:	21 September 1809
Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Bourbonaise
Fate:	Sold in 1817
General characteristics
Armament:	40 guns
Armour:	Timber

The Caroline was a 40-gun Hortense Class frigate of the French Navy.

On 12 November 1808, the French authorities sent four new 40 gun frigates to the Indian Ocean. One of them was Caroline, under the command of Captain Jean-Baptise-Henri Feretier, which sailed from the port of Vlissingen in Holland.

Caroline initially patrolled with Manche and Iéna under capitaine de vaisseau Billard. Manche was under the command of Captain Breton and was another of the four; she had sailed from Cherbourg.

Caroline captured several ships, notably the two 20-gun East Indiamen Streatham and Europa on 3 May 1809, before returning to Saint-Paul. A third East Indiaman, Lord Kieth, escaped. Prize crews took Streatham and Europa to Réunion, where the British recaptured them on 21 September.

On 21 September, HMS Sirius and HMS Raisonnable captured her during the British Raid on Saint-Paul. She was taken into British service as HMS Bourbonaise, there already being an HMS Caroline.

The Admiralty attempted to auction Bourbonaise at Plymouth on 18 Sep 1816 at £2500, but bidding stopped at £2000. She was broken up in 1817.

References

• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.