French frigate Résolue (1778)
| File:Engageante resolue.jpg Engageante (left) and Résolue (right) battling HMS Concorde at the Action of 23 April 1794 | |
| Career (France) |    |
|---|---|
| Name: | Résolue |
| Namesake: | Resolute |
| Builder: | Saint Malo; plans by Guignace |
| Laid down: | April 1777 |
| Launched: | 16 March 1778 |
| In service: | April 1778 |
| Captured: | 14 October 1798 |
| Career (UK) |  |
| Name: | HMS Resolue |
| Acquired: | 14 October 1798 |
| Fate: |
Hulk in Plymouth Broken up 1811 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Iphigénie class frigate |
| Displacement: | 620 tonnes |
| Length: | 44.2 metres |
| Beam: | 11.2 metres |
| Draught: | 4.9 metres |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Armament: |
32 guns:
28 18-pound long guns |
| Armour: | Timber |
The Résolue was an Iphigénie class 32-gun frigate of the French Navy.
On 19 March 1779, the Résolue captured a British fort in Senegal.
In November 1791, as she was escorting merchant ships, Résolue was captured at the Battle of Tellicherry by HMS Phoenix and HMS Perseverance, and restored to France at Mahé.
She took part in the Action of 23 April 1794, when a squadron comprising Résolue, Engageante, Pomone and the 22-gun corvette Babet met a squadron of five British heavy frigates. Résolue managed to escape but the British took the other three ships.
She took part in the Expédition d'Irlande, under captain Montalan. On 22 December 1796, she collided with Redoutable in Bantry Bay, destroying her bowsprit, foremast, mainmast and mizzen. A boat was set afloat to seek help from Immortalité, but it was washed on the shore on Clough Beach, and its crew taken prisoner. The boat is now a local attraction. Résolue managed to return to Brest under emergency rigging, and in tow from Pégase.
She was later captured by HMS Melampus on 14 October 1798 at the Battle of Tory Island. The Résolue was fitted with hanging ports to her main deck. To meet a coming storm, her crew had run in and double-breeched her 12-pounders, and shut and barred the ports. She was, therefore, in a comparatively defenseless state with only her quarterdeck guns able to respond to Melampus's broadsides. Before she struck her colours, Résolue lost ten men killed and had some wounded, out of a crew of about 500 men.[1] She was purchased for the Royal Navy as HMS Resolue but never saw active service.
She became a slop ship in 1805 and was broken up in 1811. As late as 1810 she did have men aboard, including some African-Americans impressed into service, who wrote letters attempting to secure their release.[2]
References
- ↑ William James. 1837. Naval History of Great Britain from the Declaration of War by France in 1793 to the Accession of George IV. (London: Richard Bentley), pp. 135-7.
- ↑ W. Jeffrey Bolster. 2007. Notes and Documents: Letters by African American Sailors, 1799–1814. The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 64, no. 1.
- Colledge, J.J. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy From the Fifteenth Century to the Present. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987. ISBN 0-87021-652-X.
- Winfield, Rif. British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing, 2nd edition, 2008. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.
External links
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