French frigate Topaze (1805)

Career (France)
Name: Topaze
Builder: Nantes Dockyard
Laid down: 1803
Launched: 1 March 1805
Commissioned: September 1805
Captured: 22 January 1809
Career (UK)
Name: HMS Jewel
Acquired: 22 January 1809
Renamed: HMS Alcmene
Fate: Scrapped, 1816
General characteristics
Type: Frigate
Armament: 44 guns

The Topaze was a 44-gun frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1809 and she the served with the Royal Navy under the name Alcmene until she was broken up in 1816.

French service

She was built in Nantes in 1803 on plans by Pierre Forfait and launched on 1 March 1805. She was put into service in September.

She departed from Nantes in June 1805 for Fort-de-France to carry new instructions to Admiral Villeneuve, but failed to reach him as the fleet was already heading for Europe.

On 22 January 1809, HMS Cleopatra captured her at the Action of 22 January 1809.[1] The British took her into the Royal Navy as HMS Jewel. After the loss of Alcmene, Jewel was renamed Alcmene later that year.

Fate

She was broken up in 1816.

References

  1. ^ Norton Shaw, Hume Greenfield, Henry Walter Bates. (1851). The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. Volume 20. (p. xxxv).