HMS Alceste (1806)
| File:La Pomone contre les fregates Alceste et Active.jpg La Pomone contre les frégates HMS Alceste et Active Pierre Julien Gilbert | |
| Career (France) | 60px |
|---|---|
| Name: | Minerve |
| Namesake: | Minerva |
| Builder: | Rochefort |
| Laid down: | May 1804 |
| Launched: | 9 September 1805 |
| Completed: | November 1805 |
| Captured: | By the British on 25 September 1806 |
| Career (UK) |  |
| Name: | HMS Alceste |
| Acquired: | Captured on 25 September 1806 |
| Reclassified: | Troopship in 1814 |
| Fate: |
Wrecked on 18 February 1817, wreck then burnt on 22 February |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Armide class |
| Tons burthen: | 1,097 bm |
| Length: |
152 ft 5 in (46.46 m) (overall) 128 ft 8 in (39.22 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 40 ft (12.2 m) |
| Draught: | 12 ft 8 in (3.86 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Complement: | 284 (later 315) |
| Armament: |
38 guns (re-rated as 46 guns in 1817)
|
The Minerve was a 38-gun Armide class frigate of the French Navy, captured by the British in 1806 and brought into Royal Navy service as HMS Alceste. She was wrecked in 1817.
French service
Alceste was built for the French Navy as the Minerve, an Armide Class 18-pounder/40-gun frigate to a design by Pierre Rolland. She was built at Rochefort and launched in 1805.
On 25 September 1806, she and Armide, Gloire and Infatigable were captured by a four-ship squadron under Samuel Hood.
British service
The captured Minerve arrived at Plymouth on 26 October 1806, and after languishing there for some months, was taken into service as HMS Alceste, and commissioned in March 1807 under Captain Murray Maxwell. She was refitted at Plymouth for British naval service from Aporil to August 1807. Maxwell took the Alceste into the Mediterranean to prey upon enemy shipping, and carry out raids along the Spanish, French and Italian coastlines. On 4 April 1808 Alceste, in company with HMS Mercury and HMS Grasshopper attacked a Spanish convoy of Rota, destroying two of the escorts and driving many of the merchants ashore. Seven were subsequently captured and sailed back out to sea by marines and sailors of the British ships. Further raids were carried out that year on Frejus and Corsica and in 1810 two of her officers were imprisoned under a flag of truce while raiding off the Tiber.
In 1811, Alceste entered the Adriatic . On 4–5 May, she participated with Belle Poule in a raid at Parenza (Istria) that destroyed a French man-of-war brig. She raided Ragusa, and at the Action of 29 November 1811, Alceste led the British frigate squadron that outran and defeated a French military convoy carrying cannon. Two French ships were taken. In late 1812, Alceste was decommissioned and placed in Ordinary (Reserve) at Deptford. Between February and July 1814 she was converted at Deptford into a troopship; in this role, she recommissioned in May 1814 under Commander Faniel Lawrence, and sailed with troops to North America.
In 1816 Alceste was recommissioned under Captain Maxwell again, whose previous ship HMS Daedalus had been wrecked in 1813. Maxwell was ordered to the Pacific, sailing for China on 9 February 1814 with Lord Amherst aboard, and passing through the Sunda Strait. Alceste made numerous voyages of exploration in the region, and also operated against a Chinese mandarin who tried to prevent their landing at Canton. On 18 February 1817, Alceste was wrecked on a rock in the Java Sea. The crew came ashore but Malay Dyaks burnt the wreck before they could return. Forced into a stockade by the threatening behaviour of the Dyaks, the survivors were eventually picked up by an East India Company ship.
John McCleod, surgeon on board the Alceste, published in 1818 a book entitled "A narrative of a Voyage to the Yellow Sea", based on his experiences during the ship's last voyage. It is known for containing the first known use of the term "parting shot".
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. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
- Lyon, David and Winfield, Rif, The Sail and Steam Navy List, All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889. Chatham Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-86176-032-9.
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.
