French corvette Lynx (1804)
| Career (France) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Lynx |
| Ordered: | 21 February 1803 |
| Builder: | Bayonne, plans by Rolland (junior) |
| Laid down: | 1802 |
| Launched: | 17 April 1804 |
| Commissioned: | 14 June 1804 |
| Captured: | 21 January 1807 |
| Career (United Kingdom) |  |
| Name: | HMS Heureux[1] |
| Struck: | 1814 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Brig |
| Tons burthen: | 337 tonnes (bm) |
| Armament: |
|
The Lynx was a 16-gun brig of the French Navy, launched at Bayonne on 17 April 1804, and commissioned in June under Lieutenant Fargenel. The British captured her in 1807. After service in the Caribbean she was sold in 1814.
French service
She took part in the Trafalgar Campaign, ferrying dispatches between Fort de France and France, where she arrived on 10 July 1805.
She was then attached to a five-frigate squadron under Commodore Eleonore-Jean-Nicolas Soleil, tasked with ferrying supplies and troops to the French West Indies. A British squadron intercepted the convoy, which led to the Action of 25 September 1806, where the British captured four of the frigates. Lynx managed to outrun HMS Windsor Castle, together with the frigate Thétis and the corvette Sylphe, and finally arrived in Martinique on 31 October.
The boats of HMS Galatea, under Lieutenant William Coombe, captured Lynx off Les Saintes on 21 January 1807. The boats, manned with five officers, 50 seamen and 20 marines, had to row for eight hours, mainly in blazing sun, to catch her. During the action Coombe, who had already lost a leg in a previous action, received a musket ball through the thigh above the previous amputation. The surviving officers were promoted; Coombe was promoted to Commander and captain of Lynx , which received the name Heureux in British service.[2]
British service
Heureux was commissioned in April 1807 under Coombe. Unfortunately, Coombe died on 28 November 1808 while attacking shipping. .
He had received information that seven French vessels were lying under the protection of two batteries in the harbour at Mahaut, Guadeloupe. Three boats from Heureux attacked just after the setting of the moon on the morning of the 29th, having rowed six hours to get there. Coombe, with 19 men, boarded and carried a schooner of 2 guns and 39 men after a few minutes of desperate fighting. Meanwhile Lieut. Daniel Lawrence and the remainder of the party landed and spiked three 24-pounders in the batteries, before boarding a brig. On the way out the prizes grounded and they became sitting targets for fire from muskets and three field pieces that the French had brought down to the shore. Coombe was in the act of abandoning the prizes when a 24-pound shot struck him on the left side; he died almost at once. A musket ball wounded Lawrence in the forearm and it was some hours before the boats got out of range of shot.[3]
Commander John Ellis Watt replaced Coombe, and was replaced in turn by Captain Michael Halliday in 1809.
Fate
Heureux arrived in Plymouth on 20 January 1810 and was laid up in Ordinary. She was sold there on 1 September 1814 for £460 and was broken up.
References
- Roche, Jean-Michel (2005) Dictionnaire des Bâtiments de la Flotte de Guerre Française de Colbert à nos Jours. (Group Retozel-Maury Millau).
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
