French frigate Africaine (1798)
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| Career (France) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Africaine |
| Namesake: | Africa |
| Builder: | Rochefort |
| Laid down: | March 1795 |
| Launched: | 3 January 1798 |
| Commissioned: | May 1798 |
| Captured: | 19 February 1801 |
| Career (UK) |  |
| Name: | HMS Africaine |
| Acquired: | Captured, 19 February 1801 |
| Fate: | Broken up, 1816 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Preneuse class frigate |
| Displacement: | 720 tonnes |
| Length: | 47.8 metres (157 ft) |
| Beam: | 11.9 metres (39 ft) |
| Draught: | 5.8 metres (19 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Armament: |
French service, 44 guns: British service:
|
| Armour: | Timber |
The Africaine was a 44-gun Preneuse class frigate of the French Navy.
In 1800, she sailed to Saint-Domingue. On 19 February 1801, she was captured by HMS Phoebe, under Captain Robert Barlow, east of Gibraltar. She was carrying ordnance, stores and 400 soldiers reinforcing Napoleon's army in Egypt. Africaine was overtaken by Phoebe who had the weather-gage, and was taken at close range, despite the support from the soldiers, who supported the frigate's guns with their musket fire. Phoebe's guns inflicted more than 340 casualties on the soldiers and seaman of L'Africaine and she was taken at 9:30PM and was bought into the Royal Navy[1] as HMS Africaine.
In September 1810, she was captured by Iphigénie and Astrée. Dismasted, she was abandoned and was retaken the next day by HMS Boadicea.
In May 1815, she was escorting a group of East Indiamen from Ceylon, including the ill-fated Arniston, when that ship was wrecked on the coast of South Africa with the loss of 372 lives.[2]
Also in 1815, James Cooper and three of his shipmates were very publicly court martialed, then hanged on 1 February 1816 following their being found guilty of sodomy onboard the ship.[3][4]
The ship was broken up in 1816.
[edit] Further reading
HMS Africaine features prominently in The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian.
[edit] References
- ^ Phoebe. Phoebe Tree for All (June 20, 2007).
- ^ Raikes, Henry (1846). Memoir of the Life and Services of Vice-admiral Sir Jahleel Brenton. Hatchet & Son, p527.
- ^ Barry Richard Burg (2007). Boys at Sea: Sodomy, Indecency, and Courts Martial in Nelson's Navy. ISBN 0230522289. Retrieved on 2008-02-23.
- ^ Barry Richard Burg (1995). Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition: English Sea Rovers in the Seventeenth. NYU Press. ISBN 0814712363. Retrieved on 2008-02-23.
