French corvette Vénus (1794)

For other ships of the same name, see French ship Vénus and HMS Scout.
Vénus
History
France
Name: Vénus
Namesake: Venus
Builder: Bordeaux
Laid down: 1793
Launched: January 1794
In service: April 1794
Captured: 22 October 1800
United Kingdom
Name: Scout
Acquired: 22 October 1800 by capture
Fate: Wrecked off Isle of Wight March 1801
General characteristics [1]
Displacement: 550 tons (French)[2]
Tons burthen: 405 53⁄94 (bm)
Length: 111 ft 0 in (33.8 m) (overall; 89 ft 10 5⁄8 in (27.4 m) (keel)
Beam: 29 ft 1 1⁄2 in (8.9 m)
Draught: 4.55 m (14.9 ft) (laden)
Depth of hold: 13 ft 4 in (4.1 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement:
  • French service: 185 men; 200 when captured
  • British service: 185 men
Armament:
  • French service: 28 guns originally; 32 when captured
  • British service:
  • Upper deck: 18 × 24-pounder carronades
  • Fc:2 × 6-pounder chase guns

Vénus was a corvette of the French Navy that the British captured in 1800.[Note 1] Renamed HMS Scout, she served briefly in the Channel before being wrecked by accident in 1801, a few days after taking a major prize.

French service

Vénus was begun in Bordeaux in 1793 as a privateer but the French Navy bought her while she was still on the stocks. She was launched in January 1794 as the Vengeance and completed for service in the following April, but was renamed Vénus in May 1795.[1]

The French commissioned her as a corvette and initially armed her with 26 guns: twenty-two 8-pounders on her upper deck and four 4-pounders on her galliards, i.e. her quarterdeck and forecastle. By 1796 she had had 4 obusiers added on her gaillards, but by July 1798 these had been removed and she carried ten 4-pounder guns on her galliards.

Vénus took part in the Expédition d'Irlande and under the command of Captain André Senez, was in Commodore Savary's squadron at the Battle of Tory Island.

Capture

On 22 October 1800 Indefatigable captured Vénus off the Portuguese coast.[3] The Indefatigable had been chasing Venus from the morning when in the afternoon Fisgard came in sight and forced Vénus to turn. Both British vessels arrived at Vénus at about 7pm.[3] Vénus was armed with 32 guns and had a crew of 200 men. She was sailing from Rochefort to Senegal.[3] Later, Indefatigable and Fisgard shared the prize money with Boadicea, Diamond, Urania and the hired armed schooner Earl St Vincent.[4]

Fitting for British service

The Royal Navy commissioned Vénus as Scout in November 1800 under Commander George Ormsby.[1] She was fitted out at Plymouth until March 1801. However Ormsby died in January 1801. Ormsby's successor was Commander Henry Duncan.[1]

Vénus was too small and too weak for the Royal Navy (RN) to take her in as a sixth-rate frigate or even a post-ship. She was designed for short-range privateering in the Channel and the Bay of Biscay, rather than the longer-range escort or patrol work of British sloop. Accordingly she couldn't stow as much in the way of stores as the Admiralty needed; reducing her armament, relative to her French establishment, would have permitted her to carry the larger weight of stores she had to carry in RN service.

HMS Scout

In March 1801, Scout was in company with the hired armed vessels Sheerness and the Lady Charlotte when they captured a large Dutch East Indiaman off St Alban's Head. She was the Crown Prince, of 1,400 tons and 28 guns, and had been sailing from China to Copenhagen with a cargo of tea.[5]

Fate

Scout was wrecked on the Shingles, Isle of Wight, on 25 March 1801.[1] The crew attempted to lighten her but all efforts had failed by late afternoon on 27 March.[6] Due to the efforts of Beaver and the master attendant of the dockyard all the crew were saved.[7][8]

On 1 April a court martial was held at Portsmouth on Gladiator for Commander Duncan, his officers and crew for the loss of Scout. The court acquitted Duncan, the pilot the officers and the crew of all blame, ruling that the sinking was due to a strong tide catching Scout when she was vulnerable.[9][10]

Postscript

Duncan received command of the Premier Consul, which Dryad had captured on 5 March 1801, and which the Admiralty renamed Scout. Scout foundered with the loss of all hands in 1801 or 1802. Naval opinion was that she went down off Newfoundland.[11]

See also

Footnotes

Notes
  1. ↑ French sources refer to her as a corvette of 28-guns, however in British service she was classified as a sloop.
Citations
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Winfield (2008), pp.267-8.
  2. ↑ Winfield and Roberts (2015), p. 172.
  3. 1 2 3 The London Gazette: no. 15308. p. 1256. 4 November 1800.
  4. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 15390. p. 921. 25 July 1801.
  5. ↑ Naval Chronicle (Jan-Jun 1801), Vol. 5, p.275.
  6. ↑ Hepper (1994), p.98.
  7. ↑ Naval Chronicle (Jan-Jun 1801), Vol. 5, p.269.
  8. ↑ Gossett (1986), p. 36.
  9. ↑ Naval Chronicle (Jan-Jun 1801), Vol. 5, pp.275-6.
  10. ↑ Grocott (1998), p.110.
  11. ↑ Grocott (1998), p.123.

References

External links

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