HMS Seine (1798)
| 250px HMS Jason attacking the French frigate Seine | |
| Career (France) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Seine |
| Builder: | Le Havre |
| Laid down: | May 1793 |
| Launched: | 19 December 1793 |
| Completed: | By March 1794 |
| Captured: | 30 June 1798, by the Royal Navy |
| Career (UK) |  |
| Name: | HMS Seine |
| Acquired: | 30 June 1798 |
| Honours and awards: | Naval General Service Medal with clasp "SEINE 20 AUGT. 1800" |
| Fate: |
Grounded on 21 July 1803 Burnt on 22 July to prevent capture |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 38-gun Seine-class fifth rate |
| Tons burthen: | 1,145 87/94 bm |
| Length: |
156 ft 9 in (47.8 m) (overall) 131 ft 9 in (40.2 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 40 ft 6 in (12.3 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 4.25 in (3.77 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement: | 284 |
| Armament: |
|
Seine was a 38-gun Seine-class French frigate that the Royal Navy captured in 1798 and commissioned as the fifth rate HMS Seine.[1] On 20 August 1800, Seine captured the French ship Vengeance in a single ship action that would win for her crew the Naval General Service Medal. Seine's career ended in 1803 when she hit a sandbank near the Texel.[2]
French career
Seine was a 40-gun frigate built between May 1793 and March 1794 at Le Havre, having been launched on 19 December 1793.[3]
On 14 July 1794 she and Galatee captured the 16-gun sloop-of-war HMS Hound in the Atlantic.[4] Seine's career with the French Navy lasted less than five years. HMS Jason and HMS Pique chased her down and captured her in the Breton Passage on 30 June 1798.[3][5] Her captors sailed her into Portsmouth, arriving there on 18 July.[3]
British career
Seine was taken into service with the British under an Admiralty order dated 14 September 1798. She then spent several months fitting out at Portsmouth for the sum of £14,755.[3] She was re-rated as a 38-gun frigate and commissioned in November that year under the command of Captain David Milne, who had been captain of Pique when she captured Seine and who had lost his vessel when she grounded during the action. Milne commanded the Seine for the rest of her career.[3] By March 1801 he was at Jamaica, as part of the fleet under Lord Hugh Seymour.[6]
On 20 August 1800, Seine attacked the French ship, Vengeance, which had just finished refitting at Curaçao, and captured her. Both ships sustained heavy casualties; 13 crew were killed aboard the Seine, 29 were wounded, and the ship was cut up.[7] However, Vengeance sustained worse: almost cut to pieces, many considered her beyond repair. Nevertheless Vengeance was repaired in Jamaica and taken into British service under her existing name. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "SEINE 20 AUGT. 1800" to all surviving claimants from this action.
The naval historian William James subsequently exaggerated Vengeance's earlier engagement with the Constellation in favour of the French. He declared that as Seine had done what Constellation could not, British naval forces were "more potent than American thunder".[7]
Fate
Seine underwent a refit at Chatham Dockyard between June and July 1803, but shortly after her return to service she grounded on a sandbank to the northward of Terschelling on 21 July 1803. The crew was saved and set fire to her on the following day to prevent the French recapturing her.[3][4]
A court martial on 4 August 1803 honourably acquitted Captain Milne, his officers and crew for the loss of the vessel. However, it found the pilots wanting. The court martial sentenced them to be mulcted of all their wages for two years and to be imprisoned in the Marshalsea for two years.[4]
Notes
References
- Blake, Nicholas; Richard Lawrence (2005), The Illustrated Companion to Nelson's Navy (illustrated ed.), Stackpole Books, p. 35, ISBN 0811732754, 9780811732758, http://books.google.com/books?id=5NdhjSOpqpcC
- 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. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
- Gardiner, Robert (2006). Frigates of the Napoleonic Wars. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-292-5.
- Grocott, Terence (1997) Shipwrecks of the revolutionary & Napoleonic eras (Chatham). ISBN 1-86176-030-2
- James, William (2004), Naval occurrences of the War of 1812: a full and correct account of the naval war between Great Britain and the United States of America, 1812-1815 (illustrated ed.), Naval Institute Press, ISBN 0851779875, 9780851779874, http://books.google.com/books?id=6PAQBe0ROxMC
- Milne, Alexander; John Beeler (2004), The Milne papers: the papers of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alexander Milne, Bt., K.C.B. (1806-1896), Navy Records Society, Navy Records Society (Great Britain), Ashgate for the Navy Records Society, pp. 3–7, ISBN 0754650634, 9780754650638, http://books.google.com/books?id=U21nAAAAMAAJ&q=HMS+Seine+1798&dq=HMS+Seine+1798&pgis=1</ref>
- Toll, Ian W. (2007), Six Frigates: How Piracy, War and British Supremacy at Sea gave Birth to the World's Most Powerful Navy, London: Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0-141-01456-2
- Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships of the Age of Sail 1794–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
