Belle Poule (ship, 1802)

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Belle Poule
Capture of the 'Gypsy', 30 April 1812, by Thomas Buttersworth: Belle Poule on the left
Capture of the 'Gypsy', 30 April 1812 , by Thomas Buttersworth : Belle Poule on the left
Ship data
flag FranceFrance France United Kingdom
United KingdomUnited Kingdom (Naval War Flag) 
Ship type frigate
Launch April 17, 1802
Whereabouts 1816 sold as the Hulk to unknown people
Ship dimensions and crew
length
~ 38.95 m ( Lüa )
width ~ 39.11 m
Draft Max. ~ 4.08 m
 
crew 284 (later 315)
Rigging and rigging
Number of masts 3
Armament

Upper Deck:
28 × 18-pounder guns
Quarterdeck :
14 × 32-pounder carronades
foredeck :
2 x 9-pounder guns
2 × 32-pounder carronades

The Belle Poule was a French Navy frigate that was captured by the Royal Navy in 1806 and used there until 1816.

The time in the French Navy

The Belle Poule (Eng. "Beautiful Hen") was built for the French Navy according to a design by Jacques-Noël Sané at the shipyard of the brothers Louis and Mathurin Crucy in Basse-Indre . As part of Virginie class she ran on April 17 in 1802 by the stack .

In March 1803, the ship was assigned to the fleet of Rear Admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois . He had received the order to recapture the colonies lying in the Indian Ocean , which had been ceded to the British Crown as part of the Peace of Amiens . The fleet included the 74-gun ship of the line Marengo , the frigates Atalante , Belle Poule and Sémillante, as well as troop carriers and freighters with food and ammunition.

On June 15, 1803, troops were deposed from the Belle Poule in Puducherry , India. The fleet itself left the area the next day, and the troops left behind had to give up in September.

In early November, the fleet set sail for the Batavian Republic to protect the Dutch colonies. On the way there, Linois was able to repel attacks by the British fleet near Bengkulu and capture a total of five ships . The voyage continued into the South China Sea , where the Chinese parts of the British East India Company fleet were believed to be. Ultimately, they met in the naval battle of Pulo Aura . However, the greater number of British East Indiamans , some of whom carried flags of the Royal Navy , and their dogged defense made the French give up. Linois returned to Batavia. From there he sent the Atalante and the Belle Poule to the Bay of Bengal , where the Belle Poule landed several ships before returning to the Ile de France .

In 1805 and 1806, the Belle Poule crossed the African coast with other ships between the Red Sea and the Cape of Good Hope . In the battle of March 13, 1806 , Linois met the unit of Vice-Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren . This was seven ships of the line, including the 108-canon London , the 82-canon Ramilles and Repulse , the 80-canon Foudroyant , two frigates, including the Amazon , and a corvette strong. After a difficult battle with the London , the Marengo had to give up the sails, the Belle Poule fared the same after battles with the Amazon and the Ramillies .

At this time, the Belle Poule was armed with 40 18-pounder cannons, the crew was under the command of Captain Brouillac. The Marengo and the Belle Poule lost a total of 65 men and 80 were wounded. The British adversaries, on the other hand, had only a loss of 13 lives and 26 injured.

In the Royal Navy

With its conquest by Borlase Warren, the Admiralty put the Belle Poule into service as a 5th rank frigate while retaining her name .

Adria service

In 1808 she was commanded under Captain James Brisbane to the forces that successfully blocked Corfu as part of the Adriatic Campaign (1807-1814, Napoleonic Wars ) . In February 1809, Brisbane conquered the Var in a raid on the port of Vlora . The ship was below two cannon locations of the fortress, but these were not used, so that the Belle Pule had a clear line of fire on the Var . Although the Var was intended to hold 32 guns, only twenty-two 9-pounder guns and four 24-pounder guns were mounted there. The ship was later used as Chichester in the British Navy. The crew of 200 men, under the command of Captain Palin Brisbane, found themselves unable to determine the losses of their opponent after the conquest, as the crew left the ship the moment the flag was lifted.

Between October 2nd and 12th of the same year, the Belle Poule was involved in the invasions of the Ionian islands of Cerigo , Kefalonia and Zante and the pinch captured there .

On March 10, 1810, the Belle Poule brought up the Charlotta .

From March 31 of the same year, the British naval forces attacked the French fortress of Santa Maura . The soldiers of the Belle Poule were part of the attack force, at the time of the surrender by the enemy on April 10, only one man of the Belle Poule crew had been injured. Six men from the entire crew were wounded over the 10-day period of the battle.

On August 21, 1810, Belle Poule brought up the Saint Nicholo , on December 11 the Italian brig Carlotta , which, originally intended for 14 cannons, carried only ten. The ship had a crew of 100 men and was en route from Venice to Corfu. The teams of the Montague and the Acorn participated in the prize money for the hull. At about the same time, Belle Poule also assented in landing a French schooner on the Dalmatian coast .

On January 30, 1811, Belle Poule conquered and destroyed the beautifully rigged Italian man-of-war Leoben together with the Leonidas , Victorious and Imogen . The Leoben brought its cargo, military equipment, from Venice to Corfu. To do this, she sailed parallel to the Albanian coast. The ship was armed with ten cannons and had a crew of 60 men. With their conquest, the ship was set on fire and blown up by its own crew.

From May 4th to 5th, 1811, Belle Poule took part in an attack on Porec ( Istria ) together with the Alceste . They drove a French brig into the port there, but could not get close enough to shoot them. Instead, the attackers landed 200 seamen and all marines on the ships on a nearby island. In addition, two 9-pounder cannons, two field howitzers and another artillery weapon were used. The subsequent mutual shelling lasted five hours, during which the French brig could be sunk. In this mission, a Belle Poule man was killed, three were injured, and Alceste had two dead men to report. The Belle Poule then returned to Great Britain and was assigned to the Canal Fleet . On December 22, 1811, the ship's crew and the Medus brought up two chasse-marées .

War of 1812

After a short time in the Canal Fleet, the Belle Poule was commanded to serve in the British-American War . In 1812, the Belle Poule controlled the so-called west approach , where she brought up various American merchant and privateer ships. On January 27th she arrested the Spy , followed by the Prudentis on January 31st and the Don Roderick on February 16th. In raising the Don Roderick , the Belle Poule was supported by the British warships Achates , Dryad and Lyra . On April 30, Belle Poule and the Hermes brought down the American pirate Gipsy (or Gipsey ) after a three-day hunt in the middle of the Atlantic . In the course of this action, the Gipsy signaled twice the surrender to the Hermes , but then escaped in both cases before the crew of the Belle Poule could board. The Gipsey had a displacement of 300 tons and was armed with twelve 18-pound carronades and one 18-pound swivel bream . On May 26, the Belle Poule, along with the Abercombie and the Dryad, raised the General Gates . The prize of the Belle Poule was shared by agreement with the Armide team , and the same happened three days later when the Armide brought up the purse .

In September 1812, Captain George Harris replaced Captain Brisbane, and during the following year the Belle Poule brought up more American ships, including four privateers. On February 26, 1813, the Warspite and Belle Poule landed the Mars and their cargo. On March 11, which brought Belle Poule and British privateers Earl St Vincent jointly occupied by 16 men and two guns equipped 220-ton ship John and Francis on. The John and Francis was en route from Bordeaux to New York with a load of brandy and wine . On April 3, after a nine-hour hunt , the Belle Poule was able to muster the Grand Napoleon , who had been at sea for 29 days from New York and was heading to Bordeaux. It was a 305-tonnigen new building with twenty-two portholes , were, however, of which only equipped with four guns. The ship was operated by a crew of 43. Not only did she carry valuable cargo on board during the voyage, Captain Harris later described her as “ copper-studded and, with all due respect, one of the finest ships I have ever seen. “On the same day the British Dispatch brought up the Prussian ship Enigheidt , the prize was shared between the Belle Poule , Briton and Royalist . In relation to a Napoleon upset by the Belle Poule - probably a different ship than the Grand Napoleon - the prize was shared between the Briton and the cutter Fancy , which was requisitioned as an auxiliary ship , as well as on the basis of agreements with the Dispatch and Royalist .

On April 20, 1813, the Belle Poule and the Pyramus brought up the kaper zebra . This was a schooner equipped with 10 cannons, which was on its way from Bordeaux to New York with its 38-man crew. At the time of boarding, the Andromache was also in sight. The zebra was taken over by the British Navy and used as Pictou .

On the following 11 May, was Belle Poule the Revenge after a hunt from 17:00 h to 02:00 h at night make. The Revenge , manned by 32 men, was a new building with 16 gun ports - of which only four were equipped with long 9-pounder cannons - on the way from Charleston to Bordeaux.

On September 20, the Belle Poule captured two French Chasse-marées, on the one hand the 32-tonne displacing Roze , with her 32-man crew on the way from Bordeaux to Nantes , on the other hand, the 25-ton displacement ambition , with three men on the way from Bordeaux to La Rochelle .

On December 14th, the crew of the Belle Poule , accompanied by the Castillian and the Tartarus, boarded the brig Squirrel , which was on its way from Arcachon to New York. The Squirrel was a two-cannon armed ship that displaced 169 tons and had a crew of 17 people.

From 1814 the Belle Poule was under the command of Captain Edward Williams. During this time it reached the Gironde in southern France. Before April 9, a landing party composed of sailors and marines from the Belle Poule was deployed under the leadership of Captain George Harris. This marched 50 mi (80 km), successively overrun the batteries of Pointe Coubre, Pointe Nègre, Royan , Soulac and Mèche . In total, the landing party destroyed forty-seven 36-pounders and seventeen 13 " mortars . While they were returning, Harris organized the siege of the fortifications at Blaye. Rear Admiral Penrose thereupon ordered the Belle Poule into the Gironde as" advance to the advancing squadron " .

At the request of Duke Wellesley , the Belle Poule was rededicated in June as a troop transport under the command of Captain Francis Baker. On August 15, the ship arrived in Plymouth from Portsmouth, with the 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment of Foot on board. In the following time the Belle Poule was completely overhauled and adapted for the new task. Finally, on September 17th, the troops of the 93rd regiment were embarked. The following day, the Belle Poule left to begin her journey to New Orleans via Bermuda . The Belle Poule was involved in the Battle of New Orleans just like the troops it transported . During the march to the battle the ship was at the Battle of Lake Borgne involved from 12 to 14 December. While the Belle Poule crew had only two slightly injured men to report, the 93rd regiment should suffer heavy losses in the land battle that followed. It was not until many years later that the Belle Poule crew received their prize money, which resulted from the capture of an American gunboat and various bales of cotton.

The Belle Poule returned to Portsmouth on May 17, 1815.

Fate and aftermath

A week after her return, the Belle Poule was relocated to Portsmouth and converted into a Hulk that same year . This served as a prison. On June 11, 1816, the ship was sold for £ 2,700, her whereabouts are unknown.

In January 1819, the British Parliament approved payments to all crews of the ships that had served under Lord Viscount Keith from 1812 to 1814 as well as during use in the Gironde. The Belle Poule was named here. From 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with the inscription “14 Dec. Boat Service 1814 ”to all surviving claimants of the Battle of Lake Borgne.

Remarks

  1. ↑ […] copper-fastened, and in every respect one of the finest vessels I ever saw.
  2. ↑ [...] in advance of the advanced squadron [...]
  3. ↑ The 1st class portion of the prize money was £ 34 12 s 9¼ d ; the 6th class share - simple seaman - on 7s 10¾d.
  4. ↑ Two tranches were approved, the 1st class component was £ 272 8s 5d and the 6th class £ 3 3s 5d.

Bibliography

  1. ↑ René Chartrand; Francis Back. 1989. Napoleon's overseas army . (London: Osprey), p.34.
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 15915, HMSO, London, August 7, 1804, pp. 555-556 ( PDF , English).
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16253, HMSO, London, May 2, 1809, pp. 621-622 ( PDF , English).
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16253, HMSO, London, May 2, 1809, pp. 621-622 ( PDF , English).
  5. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16647, HMSO, London, September 19, 1812, p. 1919 ( PDF , English).
  6. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16380, HMSO, London, June 19, 1810, pp. 897-900 ( PDF , English).
  7. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16392, HMSO, London, July 31, 1810, pp. 1135-1137 ( PDF , English).
  8. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16535, HMSO, London, October 26, 1811, p. 2081 ( PDF , English).
  9. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16462, HMSO, London, March 9, 1811, p. 460 ( PDF , English).
  10. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16705, HMSO, London, February 20, 1813, p. 380 ( PDF , English).
  11. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine , 1827, p. 84.
  12. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16743, HMSO, London, June 19, 1813, p. 1209 ( PDF , English).
  13. ^ The Gentleman's magazine , Volume 81, Part 1, p.573.
  14. ^ The Gentleman's magazine and historical review , Volume 42, p.319.
  15. ↑ a b c London Gazette . No. 16511, HMSO, London, 6 August 1811, pp. 1546-1547 ( PDF , English).
  16. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16673, HMSO, London, November 24, 1812, p. 2371 ( PDF , English).
  17. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16716, HMSO, London, March 30, 1813, p. 661 ( PDF , English).
  18. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16717, HMSO, London, April 3, 1813, p. 685 ( PDF , English).
  19. ^ Lumley's bibliographical advertiser , p.120.
  20. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16741, HMSO, London, June 15, 1813, p. 1177 ( PDF , English).
  21. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16766, HMSO, London, August 21, 1813, p. 1668 ( PDF , English).
  22. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16715, HMSO, London, 27 March 1813, p 629 ( PDF , English).
  23. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16719, HMSO, London, April 10, 1813, p. 727 ( PDF , English).
  24. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16851, HMSO, London, February 1, 1814, p. 265 ( PDF , English).
  25. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16905, HMSO, London, June 4, 1814, p. 1159 ( PDF , English).
  26. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16724, HMSO, London, April 27, 1813, p. 833 ( PDF , English).
  27. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16729, HMSO, London, May 15, 1813, p. 944 ( PDF , English).
  28. ↑ a b London Gazette . No. 16844, HMSO, London, January 15, 1814, p. 129 ( PDF , English).
  29. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16999, HMSO, London, April 1, 1815, p. 611 ( PDF , English).
  30. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16887, HMSO, London, April 19, 1814, p. 834 ( PDF , English).
  31. ↑ Naval Chronicle , Vol. 33 (January-July 1815), p.42.
  32. ^ Marshall (1828), Supplement, Part 2, pp.291-2.
  33. ↑ London Gazette . No. 16991, HMSO, London, March 9, 1815, pp. 446-449 ( PDF , English).
  34. ↑ London Gazette . No. 17730, HMSO, London, July 28, 1821, p. 1561 ( PDF , English).
  35. ↑ London Gazette . No. 17864, HMSO, London, October 26, 1822, p. 1752 ( PDF , English).
  36. ↑ London Gazette . No. 20939, HMSO, London, January 26, 1849, p. 247 ( PDF , English).

literature

  • Lyon, David and Winfield, Rif, The Sail and Steam Navy List, All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815-1889, pub Chatham, 2004, ISBN 1-86176-032-9 .

Web links