HMS Fleche

Three vessels of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Fleche, after the French for "arrow":

• HMS Fleche was the French 14-gun corvette Fleche launched in 1768 that the British captured in 1794. She wrecked in the bay of San Fiorenzo in November 1795.
• HMS Fleche was the French privateer Caroline, which HMS Phoenix captured on 31 May 1798.^[1] The British took her into the navy as an 18-gun sloop. She was wrecked at the mouth of the Elbe on 24 May 1810 due to the errors of her pilots. All her crew were saved.^[2]
• HMS Fleche was a French sloop of twenty 8-pounder guns. While under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Bonamy, she transported deportees from Nantes to the Seychelles in 1801.^[3] It was near there that HMS Victor first engaged her on 2 September 1801 and captured her on 5 September. Fleche grounded and her crew set her on fire. The British were able to put the fire out, but she fell on her side and sank, and so was never actually taken into the Royal Navy.^[4]

Citations

1. The London Gazette: no. 15036. p. 592. 26 June 1798.
2. Hepper (1994), p.132.
3. Fonds, Vol. 1, p.259 & 270.
4. The London Gazette: no. 15498. pp. 757–758. 17 July 1802.

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
• Fonds Marine. Campagnes (opérations ; divisions et stations navales ; missions diverses). Inventaire de la sous-série Marine BB4. Tome premier : BB4 1 à 209 (1790-1804)
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.