Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 September 1794 – Launch of French Artémise, a 32-gun Magicienne class frigate of the French Navy in Toulon.
4 years earlier, on 26 September 1790 sistership Topaze was launched. All ships of this class were built in Toulon
The Artémise was a 32-gun Magicienne class frigate of the French Navy.
She was under construction in Toulon when the British seized the city in August 1793. They evacuated the city in December 1793, leaving her behind. The French named her Aurore on 24 July 1794, but then renamed her Artémise when they launched her on 25 September.
A painting of an action in 1795, during the French Revolutionary Wars. Almost simultaneously the opposing French and British admirals in the Mediterranean, sent two frigates each to reconnoitre each other’s fleets. Early on the morning of 24 June they sighted each other off Minorca. The British ships were the ‘Dido’ and ‘Lowestoft’ and the French were the ‘Minerve’ and ‘Artemise’. Several hours later the ‘Minerve’ came into close action and attempted to board the ‘Dido’, and each were damaged. The ‘Lowestoft’ then took up the fight and within an hour all the ‘Minerve’s’ topmast went over the side. The ‘Lowestoft’ then engaged the second French frigate, leaving the two damaged ships to make repairs. After a time it became clear that the second French frigate, which had taken flight, had the edge on the ‘Lowestoft’ which was therefore recalled. On her return she placed herself across the stern of the French frigate and raked her, with the result that she struck some time later. She was the ‘Minerve’ a more powerful ship than either of the British frigates. The French ship which escaped was another powerful frigate, the ‘Artemise’. In the left foreground is the ‘Dido’ in action to starboard with the ‘Minerve’ whose bow shows starboard broadside view. The ‘Dido’s’ mizzen mast is shot away and the wreck of it is towing astern of her. She has a red ensign at the main. The ‘Minerve’s’ fore topgallant mast is shot through and hanging and her main mast is in the act of falling. In the right background is the ‘Lowestoft’ port quarter view in action to starboard with the ‘Artemis’, also port quarter view.
At the Action of 24 June 1795, along with the 40-gun Minerve, she took part in an action against HMS Dido and HMS Lowestoffe, escaping while Minerve was captured. Her captain was relieved of his command for leaving Minerve.
In 1798, she took part in the Expedition of Egypt. During the Battle of the Nile on 2 August 1798 HMS Orion and HMS Theseus engaged her; outgunned, her crew set fire to her to prevent the British from capturing her.
HMS Topaze was a Royal Navy 32-gun frigate, originally completed in 1791 as a French Magicienne-class frigate.
In 1793 Lord Hood's fleet captured her at Toulon. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name. She was broken up in 1814.
lines 38 guns, Fifth Rate. NMM, Progress Book, volume 5, folio 275 states that 'Topaze' (1793) arrived at Portsmouth Dockyard in December 1794 and was docked in July 1795 where her copper was replaced. She was launched on 16 July 1795 and sailed on 17 November having been fitted.
British service
French Revolutionary Wars
In August 1795, Topaze was commissioned under the command of Captain Stephen George Church. She sailed for Halifax in March 1796. On the morning of 28 August Topaze was part of a British squadron that was sitting becalmed about four leagues from Cape Henry when they spotted three strange vessels. Bermuda was the closest to them and signaled that they were enemy frigates. The British were not able to set out in pursuit until midday. Topaze was the first to catch the breeze and outdistanced her companions. She caught up with the laggard after about five and half hours. The French vessel fired a broadside and then surrendered. Assistance and Bermuda then took possession of the prize and accompanied her to Halifax while the rest of the squadron pursued, unsuccessfully, the other two French frigates. When Assistance took possession the French vessel she turned out to be the Elizabeth, of twenty-four 12-pounder and twelve 8-pounder (or 9-pounder) guns, and with a crew of 297 men. The Royal Navy did not purchase Elizabeth. She was an Indiaman, i.e., a merchant vessel, that the French government had bought and apparently was "an indifferent sailer".
In 1800 Topaze captured a few small prizes, one of them being the galliot Louisa, which came into Plymouth on 30 May. Topaze and Heureux sailed for the West Indies on 13 February 1801 as escorts to a large convoy. Church died in August in the West Indies, of a fever. In 1801 she came under the command of Captain Robert Honyman, who had come out to Jamaica on Garland during the summer. Honyman then sailed Topaze back to England, where she served on the Irish station.
Napoleonic Wars
In April 1803 Topaze was commissioned under Captain Willoughby Lake. On 4 June Providence came into Plymouth. Topaze had captured her while she was sailing from Charlestown to Ostend with a cargo of rice and cotton. At the end of the month, 34 French fishing boats came into Portsmouth. They were prizes to Africaine and Topaze.
On 25 September 1804, Topaze encountered and captured the French letter of marque ship Minerve, of Bordeaux, which was sailing to Martinique. She was pierced for 18 guns, but carried only fourteen 9-pounders, and had a crew of 111 men.
Then some six months later, on 13 February 1805, Topaze captured and brought into Cork the ketch-rigged General Augereau, of Bayonne. General Augereau was armed with fourteen 12-pounder carronades, and had a crew of 88 men. She had been cruising 47 days but had taken no prizes. Apparently General Augereau was notorious for her past success, and particularly the capture of the West Indiaman, William Heathcote.
On 7 May 1805, Lake and Topaze captured the Spanish privateer Napoleon, of St. Sebastian. Napoleon was pierced for 20 cannon but was armed with ten 9-pounder guns and four 18-pounder carronades; she had a crew of 108 men. She was out of Bordeaux in the 57th day of her first cruise during which she had captured the letter of marque Westmoreland, of Liverpool, after a sharp action, and the brig Brunswick, which had been sailing from Honduras.
Then on 20 May, Topaze captured the Spanish privateer brig Fenix, also of St. Sebastian. Fenix armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 85 men. She was ten days out of Vigo and had taken no prizes.
figurehead 38 guns, Fifth Rate. NMM, Progress Book, volume 5, folio 275 states that 'Topaze' (1793) arrived at Sheerness Dockyard on 20 September 1799 and was docked on 3 October. She was undocked on 14 October 1799 and sailed on 25 December 1799 having made good defects. Topaz later arrived at Portsmouth Dockyard on 19 October 1800 and sailed on 27 December 1800 having been refitted.
The French corvette Sylphe captured on 13 May 1805 a number of vessels in a convey that had left Cork on the 9th for Newfoundland. Topaze and Rosario each recaptured one.
By June 1806 Captain Anselm John Griffiths had taken command of Topaze on the Irish station. He sailed her to the Mediterranean on 8 January 1808.
In 1809 she joined the forces operating in the Adriatic campaign of 1807-1814. When the French despatched the frigates Danaé and Flore from Toulon to the Adriatic, Topaze and Kingfisher intercepted them on 12 March. Despite bringing the French to action, the British were unable to prevent them reaching Corfu and then sailing north to augment French defences in the Adriatic. Topaze sustained no casualties or meaningful damage.
On 31 May, off Demata, Albania, boats from Topaze attacked a French coastal convoy under the fortress of St. Maura. The boats captured:
- xebec Joubert, armed with eight guns and six swivel guns, with a crew of 55 men under the command of Enseigne de Vaisseau Martin;
- cutter Menteur, of four guns and 20 men, under the command of Enseigne de Vaisseau P. Gabriel;
- felucca Esperance, of three guns and 18 men;
- balancelle San Juan, of 18 tons;
- trabaccolo San Nicolai, of 14 tons.
Her boats destroyed four vessels whose names were unknown:
- gun-boat, of one gun and 16 men;
- gun-boat, of one gun and 15 men;
- trabaccolo, of 29 tons; and
- trabaccolo, of 30 tons.
All the vessels, except Joubert, were carrying government-owned cargoes of timber and brandy for Corfu. The boat action took place under heavy fire with the result that Topaze lost one man killed and one man wounded.
After this action Captain Henry Hope took command of Topaze and operated off the coast of Spain. On October 1809, a squadron under Rear Admiral George Martin, of Collingwood's fleet, chased an enemy convoy off the south of France. They succeeded in driving two of the three escorting ships of the line, Robuste and Lion, ashore near Frontignan, where their crews burnt them after dismantling them and stripping them of all usable material. The crews of the third ship of the line, Borée, and the frigate Pauline escaped into Sète.
The transports that had been part of the convoy, including the armed storeship Lamproie, of 18 guns, two bombards (Victoire and Grondeur), and the xebec Normande, sailed into the Bay of Rosas where they hoped that the castle of Rosas, Fort Trinidad and several shore batteries would protect them. On 30 October Tigre, Cumberland, Volontaire, Apollo, Topaze, Philomel, Tuscan and Scout sent in their boats. By the following morning the British had accounted for all eleven vessels in the bay, burning those they did not bring out. Some of the British boats took heavy casualties; Topaze lost four men killed and eight men wounded. In January 1813, prize money was awarded to the British vessels that took part in the action for the capture of the ships of war Grondeur and Normande, and of the transports Dragon and Indien. A court declared Invincible a joint captor. Head money was also paid for the Grondeur and Normande and for the destruction of Lemproye and Victoire.
On 9 December Topaze rescued 100 men from the garrison at Marbella when it fell to the French.
On 21 June 1810, the boats of Alceste and Topaze captured two vessels in the bay of Martino in Corsica. A landing party captured a battery of three guns that protected the entrance to the bay. They were able to capture and render the guns unserviceable, and kill or wound a number of the garrison. The British lost one man killed and two wounded in the action.
On 24 August Topaze captured the Centinelle. Topaze was also involved in the Battle of Fuengirola in October 1810. On 11 October Hope and Topaze took Lord Blayney from Gibraltar to Ceuta. two days later they left, escorting a division of gunboats and some transports carrying artillery, a battalion of the 89th Regiment of Foot ("Blayney's Bloodhounds"), the Spanish Imperial Regiment of Toledo and some others to Fuengirola to attack a Polish garrison there. The battle proved a defeat for the Anglo-Spanish force and Blayney himself was captured.
In November 1810 Captain John Richard Lumley took command of Topaze. His successor was Captain Edward Harvey. He sailed Topaze off Corfu until December 1812 when he escorted a convoy back to Britain. Topaze was in poor condition when he paid her off in February 1812.
Fate
In 1812, HMS Topaze was laid up at Portsmouth, was sold on 1 September 1814 for £1,300, and broken up in 1814.
The Magicienne class was a type of twelve 32-gun frigates of the French Navy, each with a main battery of 26 x 12-pounder long guns, and with 6 x 6-pounders on the quarterdeck and forecastle. They were designed by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb.
All ships of this class were built in Toulon - so some kind of Serial-production
Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard decoration and name in a cartouche, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Magicienne (1781), a captured French Frigate, as taken off prior to fitting as a 32-gun Fifth Rate Frigate at Chatham Dockyard. NMM, Progress Book, volume 5, folio 254, states that 'Magicienne' was docked at Chatham Dockyard on 30 October 1783 and coppered. She was undocked on 11 November 1783 and fitted for ordinary.
- Magicienne
HMS Magicienne and HMS Acasta at the Battle of San Domingo.
Builder: Toulon
Ordered: 7 February 1777
Begun: March 1777
Launched: 1 August 1778
Completed: October 1778
Fate: captured by British Navy off Boston on 2 July 1781 and added to the British Navy as HMS Magicienne
- Précieuse
Builder: Toulon
Ordered: 7 February 1777
Begun: March (or August?) 1777
Launched: 22 August 1778
Completed: November 1778
Fate: out of service in January 1804; broken up in July 1816.
- Sérieuse
Builder: Toulon
Ordered: 28 August 1778
Begun: March 1779
Launched: 28 August 1779
Completed: October 1779
Fate: sunk at the Battle of Aboukir on 1 August 1798
- Lutine
Builder: Toulon
Ordered: 23 October 1778
Begun: March 1779
Launched: 11 September 1779
Completed: November 1779
Fate: captured by British Navy in August 1793, and added to the British Navy as HMS Lutine - wrecked on 9 October 1799, her ship's bell was salvaged and still hangs in Lloyd's of London.
- Vestale
Builder: Toulon
Ordered: 20 April 1780
Begun: May 1780
Launched: 14 October 1780
Completed: February 1781
Fate: captured by British Navy off Bordeaux on 19 August 1799.
- Alceste
Builder: Toulon
Ordered: 20 April 1780
Begun: May 1780
Launched: 28 October 1780
Completed: February 1781
Fate: captured on 29 August 1793 by British Navy at Toulon (Alceste served in the Mediterranean until she was put in the reserved and disarmed in Toulon. The royalist insurrection found her there; the British, who supported the royalists, seized her and transferred her to the Kingdom of Sardinia before the conclusion of the Siege of Toulon), but retaken by the French Boudeuse on 8 June 1794, then captured again on 18 June 1799 by British Navy and commissioned her as HMS Alceste.
- Iris
Builder: Toulon
Ordered:Begun: May 1781
Launched: 29 October 1781
Completed: March 1782
Fate: captured in August 1793 by British Navy at Toulon, but burnt on 18 December 1793 during the evacuation.
- Réunion
H.M.S. Crescent, under the command of Captain James Saumarez, capturing the French frigate Réunion off Cherbourg, 20 October 1793, att. John Christian Schetky
Builder: Toulon
Begun: February 1785
Launched: 23 February 1786
Completed: January 1787
Fate: captured by British Navy off Cherbourg on 18 October 1793, and added to the British Navy under name HMS Reunion .
- Modeste
Engraving by Nicolas Ozanne showing the capture of Modeste in the harbour of Genoa
Builder: Toulon
Begun: February 1785
Launched: 18 March 1786
Completed: January 1787
Fate: captured by British Navy at Genoa on 7 October 1793, and added to the British Navy as HMS Modeste .
- Sensible
Capture of La Sensible on 27 June 1798 by the frigate Sea Horse
Builder: Toulon
Ordered: 23 January 1786
Begun: February 1786
Launched: 29 August 1787
Completed: March 1788
Fate: captured by British Navy off Malta on 28 June 1798, and added to the British Navy as HMS Sensible .
- Topaze
Builder: Toulon
Ordered: 14 March 1789
Begun: August 1789
Launched: 26 September 1790
Completed: February 1791
Fate: captured by British Navy at Toulon on 29 August 1793, and added to the British Navy as HMS Topaze .
- Artémise
Builder: Toulon
Begun: end 1791
Launched: 25 September 1794
Completed: November 1794
Fate: sunk at the Battle of Aboukir on 2 August 1798
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Artémise_(1794)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Topaze_(1793)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magicienne-class_frigate
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-354768;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=T
