HMS Curieux (1804)
HMS Curieux was a French corvette launched 20 September 1800 at Saint Malo to a design by François Pestel, and carrying 16 6-pounder guns. She was commissioned under Capitaine de frégate Joseph-Marie-Emmanuel Cordier. The British captured her in 1804 in a cutting-out action at Martinique. In her five-year British career Curieux captured several French privateers and engaged in two notable single-ship actions, also against privateers. In the first she captured the Dame Ernouf; in the second, she took heavy casualties in an indecisive action with the Revanche. In 1809 Curieux hit a rock. All her crew were saved but she had to be burnt to prevent her capture.
Contents
Capture
On 4 February 1804, boats from HMS Centaur cut her out at Fort Royal harbour, Martinique. The British suffered nine wounded, two of whom, including Commander Robert Carthew Reynolds, who had led the cutting out expedition, later died. The French suffered ten dead and 30 wounded, many mortally. Cordier escaped by accident. The British sent Curieux under a flag of truce to Fort Royal to hand the wounded over to their countrymen.
The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Curieux, a brig-sloop, and replaced her 16 French 6-pounder guns with eight 6-pounder guns and ten 24-pounder carronades. As a French warship she had had a crew of 105 men; in British service she carried 67. Reynolds commissioned her but he had been severely wounded in the action and though he lingered for a while, died in September. Her first capture, on 15 July, was the French privateer schooner Elizabeth of six guns.[1]
Reynold's successor was George Edmund Byron Bettesworth, who had been a lieutenant on Centaur and part of the cutting out expedition; her First Lieutenant was John Boss who had been a midshipman on Centaur and also in the cutting out expedition.
Curieux and the Dame Ernouf
One year later, on 8 February 1805, she chased the French 16-gun privateer Dame Ernouf for twelve hours before able to bring her to action. After forty minutes of hard fighting the Frenchman, which had a crew almost double in size relative to that of Curieux, maneuvered to attempt a boarding. Bettesworth anticipated her action and put his helm a-starboard, catching his opponent's jib-boom so that he could rake the French vessel. Unable to fight back, the Dame Ernouff struck.[2] Curieux suffered five killed and four wounded, including Bettesworth, whom a musket ball had hit in the head. The Frenchman had 30 killed and 40 wounded. Lieutenant Boss was on leave at the time of the action but took over as acting commander while Bettesworth recuperated. The French recaptured the Dame Ernouff shortly thereafter; the British re-captured her a second time, ending her privateering career.
At Cumana Gut, Boss cut out several schooners and later took a brig from St. Eustatia. On 7 July, Curieux arrived in Plymouth with dispatches from Lord Nelson. On her way, she spotted Admiral Villeneuve's Franco-Spanish squadron on its way back to Europe from the West Indies and alerted the Admiralty. Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Calder, with 15 ships of the line, intercepted Villeneuve on 22 July, but the subsequent Battle of Cape Finisterre was indecisive, with the British only capturing two enemy ships.
James Johnstone took command of Curieux in July 1805. After refitting she sailed for the Lisbon station. On 25 November her boats, under Lieut. Boss, captured and destroyed the Spanish privateer Brilliano of six guns and 55 men. On 5 February 1806, two years after her own capture, Curieux captured the 6-gun privateer Baltidore and her crew of 47 men.[1]
Curieux and the Revanche
In March 1806 John Sheriff took over as captain of Curieux. On 3 December 1807, off Barbados, Curieux, now armed with eight 6-pounders and ten 18-pounder carronades, engaged the 25-gun privateer Revanche, commanded by Captain Vidal. Revanche, which had been the slaver British Tar, was the more heavily armed (chiefly English 9-pounders, and one long French 18-pounder upon a traversing carriage on the forecastle) and had a crew of 200 men. Revanche nearly disabled Curieux, while killing Sheriff. Lieutenant Thomas Muir wanted to board Revanche, but was unable to persuade enough of his crew to do so.[2] The two vessels broke off the action and Revanche escaped. Curieux, whose shrouds and back-stays were shot away, and whose two topmasts and jib-boom had been damaged, was unable to pursue. In addition to the loss of her captain, Curieux had suffered another seven dead and 14 wounded. Revanche, according to a paragraph in the Moniteur, lost two men killed and 13 wounded. Curieux, as soon as she had partially refitted herself, made sail and anchored the next day in Carlisle Bay, Barbados. A subsequent court martial into why Muir had not taken or destroyed the enemy vessel mildly rebuked Muir for not having hove-to repair his vessel's damage once it became obvious that Curieux was in no condition to overtake Revanche.[3]
Loss
In February 1808 Commander Thomas Tucker assumed command, to be succeeded by Commander Adrew Hodge. Lieut. Henry George Moysey, possibly acting, then took command.[1] Under his command Curieux was engaged in the blockade of Guadaloupe, where she cut out a privateer from St. Anne's Bay, Jamaica.
On 22 September 1809, Curieux struck a rock off Petit-Terre off the Îles des Saintes.[1][4] The rock was 30 yards from the beach in 11 feet of water and all the crew were saved.[4] With the assistance of Hazard, her guns were removed.[4] Curieux was then winched off a quarter of a cable but slipped back and ran directly onto the reef. There she bilged. Her remains were burned to prevent capture.[4] A court martial board found Lieutenant John Felton, then Officer of the Watch, guilty of negligence and dismissed him from the service.[4] Moysey died the next month of yellow fever.
One of Curieux's officers at the time was Lieut. Provo Wallis, who went on to establish a record in the Royal Navy for length of service.
Post script
On 30 August 1860, the Prince of Wales was visiting Sherbrooke, where he met John Felton, who had emigrated to Canada after being dismissed the service. The Prince of Wales exercised his royal prerogative and restored Felton to his erstwhile rank in the Navy.[5]
References
- Byrne, John D. (1989) Crime and punishment in the Royal Navy : discipline on the Leeward Islands station, 1784-1812 (Aldershot, Hants, England: Scolar Press).
- 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.
- Gossett, William Patrick (1986). The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900. Mansell. ISBN 0-7201-1816-6.
- Moore, Alan Hilary & Arthur George Holdsworth Macpherson (1926) Sailing ships of war, 1800-1860: including the transition to steam. (London, Halton & T. Smith).
- 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.
- Ships of the Old Navy
