HMS Decade (1798)

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Career (France) French Navy Ensign
Name: Décade
Builder: Bordeaux
Laid down: March 1794
Launched: 10 October 1794
Completed: January 1795
Renamed: Had been previously named Macreuse
Captured: 24 August 1798, by the Royal Navy
Career (UK) Royal Navy Ensign (1800 - present)
Name: HMS Decade
Acquired: 24 August 1798
Fate: Sold on 21 February 1811
General characteristics
Class and type: 36-gun fifth rate frigate
Tons burthen: 914 77/94 bm
Length: 143 ft 8.5 in (43.8 m) (overall)
119 ft 1.25 in (36.3 m) (keel)
Beam: 38 ft (11.6 m)
Depth of hold: 11 ft 8 in (3.56 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 255
Armament:
  • Upper deck: 26 x 12pdrs
  • Quarter deck: 2 x 6pdrs + 10 x 24pdr carronades
  • Forecastle: 4 x 6pdrs + 2 x 24pdr carronades

HMS Decade was an 36-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French Décade, captured in 1798. She served with the British during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was sold out of the service in 1811.

Career

Décade was built at Bordeaux between March 1794 and January 1795, having been launched on 10 October 1794. She had been previously named Macreuse.[1] After a short career with the French Navy she was captured on 24 August 1798 by HMS Magnanime and HMS Naiad off Cape Finisterre.[1][2] She was taken back to Plymouth, registered there in October and fitted out there between April and December 1799.[1]

She was commissioned in June 1799 under Captain James Wallis, and sent to Jamaica in January the following year.[1] She was paid off in October 1802. Decade was fitted out at Portsmouth between May and July 1803 and recommissioned again in June 1803 under Captain William Rutherfurd.[1] Rutherfurd commanded Decade in the English Channel, before sailing to join the Mediterranean Fleet in March 1805.[1] She took part in the pursuit of the French fleet to the West Indies during the Trafalgar Campaign, and in 1806 she came under the command of Captain John Stuart.[1] Stuart was assigned to Sir Richard Strachan's squadron, and took part in the pursuit of Jean-Baptiste Willaumez's squadron during the Atlantic campaign of 1806.[1] Decade was assigned to the serve in the Channel in 1807, and by 1808 was on the Irish station. She was sold at Deptford on 21 February 1811.[1][2]

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Winfield. British Warships of the Age of Sail 1794-1817. p. 195. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Colledge. Ships of the Royal Navy. p. 92. 

References