HMS Egyptienne (1799)
| Career (France) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Égyptienne |
| Builder: | Toulon |
| Laid down: | 26 September 1798 |
| Launched: | 17 July 1799 |
| Completed: | November 1799 |
| Captured: | 2 September 1801, by the Royal Navy |
| Career (UK) |  |
| Name: | HMS Egyptienne |
| Acquired: | 2 September 1801 |
| Fate: | Sold for breaking up on 30 April 1817 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | 40-gun fifth rate frigate |
| Tonnage: | 1,434 4/94 bm |
| Length: |
169 ft 8 in (51.71 m) (overall) 141 ft 4.75 in (43.1 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 43 ft 8 in (13.31 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 15 ft 1 in (4.60 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Complement: | 330 |
| Armament: |
(in British service)
|
HMS Egyptienne, although French in origin, spent almost her entire life as a 40-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy in service from 1801 to 1817.
French service
Egyptienne was ordered (to the draught of the Forte) on 15 June 1798, and she was begun at Toulon on 26 September 1798. She was launched 17 July 1799 and put into service in November 1799.[1]
Egyptienne had allegedly been ordered originally as a 74-gun Third Rate of about 1,700 tons French, or 1900 English (the evidence is ambiguous), but while building she was modified into a heavy frigate of 1430 tons (English measurement), to the same design as the 1794-built Forte. She was reduced in length and breadth and was pierced for 15 guns of a side on the main deck and 10 on the quarterdeck and forecastle, or 50 guns in total. She was armed at Toulon on 23 September 1800 but the foremost maindeck port was found too curved in the bow to admit a gun. Hence Egyptienne received 28, instead of 30, long 24-pounders for her main deck. She also received 12 long 8-pounders and two 36-pounder brass carronades for the quarterdeck, and four long 8-pounders and two 36-pounder brass carronades for the forecastle, for a total 48 guns. Her establishment was 400-450 men and boys.
In 1801 Napoleon required reinforcements in Egypt. The port of Toulon sent the two frigates Egyptienne and Justice, each carrying troops and munitions. On 3 February the vessels anchored in the old or western port of Alexandria.
The British discovered Egyptienne, Justice and a third ship, the Regeneree, in the harbour of Alexandria at the capitulation on 2 September 1801 after the fall of Alexandria. The British took Egyptienne into service on 27 September and Captain Thomas Stephenson sailed her to Britain; on this voyage she carried Colonel Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner, who was bringing the Rosetta Stone to England. As Egyptienne was coming into the Downs she collided with the East Indiaman Marquise Wellsley.[2] She finally arrived at Woolwich on 13 February 1802
British service
Egyptienne was added to the Royal Navy under her existing name and was fitted out at Woolwich between October and December 1802, at a cost of £12,625. For British service the Admiralty ordered her armed with 28 long 24-pounders on the main deck, 12 24-pounder carronades and two long 9-pounder guns on the quarterdeck, and four 24-pounder carronades and two long 9-pounders on the forecastle, for a total of 48 guns. Her establishment was 330 men and boys. During this period she was under the command of Captain Charles Ogle.
She commissioned under Captain Charles Fleeming (or Elphinstone or Fleming) in April 1803 and initially sailed in the English Channel and off the coast of France. Here, on 27 July, she captured the 16-gun French brig-sloop Epervier in the Atlantic Ocean. The Royal Navy took Epervier into service under her existing name. Then on 30 August Egyptienne captured the 14-gun privateer Chiffonette.[3] Then she sailed to St Helena escorting a convoy of ships. During this time Charles John Napier was a midshipman aboard Egyptienne. (In later years, feeling that Fleeming had treated him badly, Napier challenged Fleeming to a duel; their seconds effected a reconciliation, so eviting the duel.)
The Egyptienne was present at the Battle of Cape Finisterre (1805), but did not participate in the engagement. While reconnoitering in advance of the fleet she captured a Danish merchant brig. After the battle she took the disabled Spanish 74-gun Firme into tow. After the battle, Admiral Robert Calder requested a court-martial to review his decision not to pursue the enemy fleet after the engagement. Fleming was one of the witnesses. The court martial ruled that Calder's failure to pursue was an error of judgment, not a manifestation of cowardice, and severely reprimanded him.[4]
On 2 October she captured the French brig-sloop Acteon, under Capitaine de Frégate Depoge, off Rochefort. She was armed with 16 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 126 men.[5] The navy took Acteon into service under her own name.[6]
On 20 November she captured the 12-gun Spanish letter of marque Paulina. The chase took nine hours, during which the Paulina threw eight of her guns overboard. She was out of Pasajes (Spain), on her way to cruise the West Indies.[7]
Captain Charles Paget followed Fleming from December that year as Fleming was at Calder's court-martial. The Egyptienne's boats cut out the privateer Alcide from Muros on 8 March 1806.[8] The boats were under the command of Phillips Crosby Handfield, her First Lieutenant, who stayed with Egyptienne as a volunteer as his promotion to Commander had not been confirmed.[9] The British took Alcide into service as Muros. On 2 October of the same year she captured the 16-gun brig-sloop Acteon off Rochefort.
On 24 December Egyptienne, under Lieutenant Handfield, his promotion still not confirmed, and Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland's HMS Loire captured the 40-gun Libre, Capitaine de Frégate Deschorches commanding, off Rochefort.[10] She was armed with 24 18-pounders, six 36-pounder carronades and 10 9-pounder guns. The French lost 20 men killed and wounded. Loire had no casualties but Egyptienne had 8 wounded, one mortally.[11] Libre was badly damaged and had lost her masts so Loire took her in tow and reached Plymouth with her on 4 January 1806.
Fate
The Egyptienne was paid off at Plymouth and put into Ordinary on 5 May 1807. Soon after she was fitted out and served as a receiving ship at Plymouth. She was in Ordinary from 1812 to 1815. She was finally sold to John Small Sedger for breaking up on 30 April 1817 for £2,810.
References
- ↑ Roche (2005).
- ↑ Laughton et al.,(1902/2002), p.338.
- ↑ {http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/E/01559.html Naval Database]
- ↑ Duckworth (1805).
- ↑ The European magazine, and London review, p.468.
- ↑ Colledge (2006), p.3.
- ↑ The European magazine, and London Review, Vol. 49, p.73.
- ↑ {http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/E/01559.html Naval Database]
- ↑ The European magazine, and London Review, Vol. 49, p.229.
- ↑ {http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/E/01559.html Naval Database]
- ↑ The European magazine, and London Review, Vol. 49, p.73-4.
- 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.
- Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.[page needed][self-published source?]
- Duckworth, Sir John Thomas (1805) Minutes of a court martial, holden on board His Majesty's ship Gladiator, in Portsmouth Harbour : on Thursday, the 25th day of April, 1805, and the two following days, for the trial of Sir J.T. Duckworth, K.B., Vice Admiral of the Blue, on charges exhibited against him by Captain James Anthol Wood, of the Royal Navy. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme).
- Laughton, John Knox, William Gordon Perrin, Christopher Lloyd, N A M Rodger & Michael Duffy (1902/2008) The Naval miscellany. (London: Printed for the Navy Records Society).
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
