HMS Belette

At least four vessels of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Belette. (Belette is French for "weasel".)

• HMS Belette was an 18-26-gun French Coquette class corvette launched in 1781, surrendered to the British in 1793 by Royalists at Toulon.^[1] The British burnt her and Poulette on 20 October 1796 at Ajaccio as the two vessels were too unseaworthy to evacuate the island of Corsica in the face of the advancing French troops.^[2]
• HMS Belette was the French 12-gun brig Belliqueuse (or Belliqueux) launched in 1793 and sold in 1797 to serve as a privateer. On 16 January 1798 Melampus was in company with Seahorse when they captured the Belliqueux, off the Irish coast. She was pierced for 20 cannon but was armed with fourteen 8-pounder guns and four carronades, and had a crew of 120 men. She was out of St. Malo, and on 11 January had captured His Majesty's packet Prince Ernest, which had been sailing from Tortola. The captain of the packet and all but four of her crew were on board Belliqueux.^[3] She was never commissioned and was sold in 1801.
• HMS Belette (1806) was a Cruizer class brig-sloop launched in 1806 and wrecked at Laeso in the Kattegat in 1812 with the loss of almost all her crew.^[4]
• HMS Belette (1814) was a Cruizer class brig-sloop launched in 1814 but not completed until 1818. She was sold in 1828.

Citations

1. Demerliac (1996), p.74, #467.
2. Hepper (1994), p.82.
3. The London Gazette: no. 14085. p. 75. 23 January 1798.
4. Gossett (1986), p.86.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
• Demerliac, Alain (1996) La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA). ISBN 2-906381-23-3
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
• Gossett, William Patrick (1986). The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900. Mansell. ISBN 0-7201-1816-6.
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005) Dictionnaire des Bâtiments de la Flotte de Guerre Française de Colbert à nos Jours. (Group Retozel-Maury Millau).
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.