''Bordelais'' (or ''Bourdolaise'', or ''Bourdelais'', or ''Bordolois''), launched in 1799, was a
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
corvette
A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...
from
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
, France. She took part in three campaigns before captured her. She then served the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
until broken up in 1804.
French service
''Bordelais'' departed Bordeaux in December 1798 under Jean-François Thibaut, returning in February 1799. Her command then passed to Jean-Baptiste Darrigrand, who cruised from February to through June.
At the beginning of June ''Bordelais'' left
Pasajes
Pasaia ( es, Pasajes) is a town and municipality located in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Autonomous Community of northern Spain. It is a fishing community, commercial port and the birthplace of the famous admiral Blas de Lezo.
Pasaia l ...
in company with ''Grand Décidé'' and . They planned to intercept a convoy from Brazil, send their prizes to Pasajes, and then return there. It is not clear that they were at all successful, and in any case captured ''Courageaux'' on 26 June.
Thibaut resumed command from July to August. In August, Jacques Moreau took command of ''Bordelais''. Her armament was upgraded she departed for a cruise.
On 6 October 1799 ''Bordelais'', under the command of Captain Joseph Moreau, detained and took into Bayonne the American vessel ''Victory'', Robert Hatton, master. ''Victory'' was carrying tobacco, cotton, and staves to London. Hatton would not divulge the names of the cargo's owners. The French court seized the cargo but released ''Victory''.
Capture
On 11 October 1799 ''Révolutionnaire'' was off the Irish coast when she sighted a strange sail. ''Révolutionnaire'' chased her quarry in a heavy gale for nine and a half hours over a distance of 114 miles (i.e., a rate of 12 miles per hour). When captured, the quarry turned out to be ''Bordelais'', of Bordeaux. She was pierced for 26 guns but carried sixteen 12-pounder guns and eight 36-pounder
carronade
A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main func ...
s. She had a crew of 202 men. She had been cruising from Passage for 19 days during which time she had captured two vessels, an American ship carrying a cargo of tobacco, and a Portuguese ship sailing from Cork with provisions. Twysden, in an attempt to interest the Admiralty in purchasing her, described ''Bordelais'' as "a most beautiful new Ship, well calculated for His Majesty's Service; was the largest, and esteemed the fastest sailing Privateer out of France."
''Bordelais'' arrived at Plymouth on 24 November. Four hundred French prisoners from and ''Bourdelaise'' landed at Plymouth on the same day. The Admiralty took ''Bordelais'' into service as the
sixth-rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works and ...
post ship
Post ship was a designation used in the Royal Navy during the second half of the 18th century and the Napoleonic Wars to describe a ship of the sixth rate (see rating system of the Royal Navy) that was smaller than a frigate (in practice, carry ...
''Bordelais''.
HMS ''Bordelais''
''Bordelais'' stayed at Plymouth until April 1800, undergoing fitting out. Captain
Thomas Manby commissioned her in January 1800. On 15 July, ''Bordelais'' captured the French vessel ''Phoenix''. , , and shared with ''Bordelais'' by agreement, as did . At some point, on a trip to Ireland the ''Bordelais'' foundered on a sandbank; Manby managed to refloat her by throwing everything possible overboard and she limped back to Plymouth;
George Manby
Captain George William Manby FRS (28 November 1765 – 18 November 1854) was an English author and inventor. He designed an apparatus for saving life from shipwrecks and also the first modern form of fire extinguisher.
Early life
Manby was bo ...
was also onboard.
''Bordelais'' spent a short period spent blockading the port of
Flushing
Flushing may refer to:
Places
* Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom
* Flushing, Queens, New York City
** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens
** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens
** Flushing ...
. She proved unsuited to the task, being long, narrow, and low in the water, and consequently so wet her crew sickened. She therefore was ordered back to Spithead.
In December Manby sailed ''Bordelais'' for the
Jamaica Station
Jamaica station is a major train station of the Long Island Rail Road located in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. With weekday ridership exceeding 200,000 passengers, it is the largest transit hub on Long Island, the fourth-busiest rail station ...
, in company with
''Andromache'' as escorts to a large convoy. A gale dispersed the convoy near
Cape Finisterre
Cape Finisterre (, also ; gl, Cabo Fisterra, italic=no ; es, Cabo Finisterre, italic=no ) is a rock-bound peninsula on the west coast of Galicia, Spain.
In Roman times it was believed to be an end of the known world. The name Finisterre, like ...
and ''Bordelais'' was sent to the west of Barbados to look for stragglers. On her way she recaptured two of the stragglers ( and ) that had already fallen prey to French privateers.
The French privateer ''Mouche'' had captured ''Aurora'', Redman, master, as she was near the
Western Islands. ''Mouche'' also captured ''Adventure'', Finlay, master. ''Bordelaise'' encountered ''Adventure'', which only struck on 8 January 1801 after a long chase. From her Mandby found out that ''Mouche'' had captured ''Aurora'' too, and had sent her to Teneriffe. He sailed there and intercepted ''Aurora'' on 10 January as she arrived.
On 28 January 1801 ''Bordelais'' encountered three French vessels, two large brigs and a schooner, off Barbados. The three were to windward and started to chase ''Bordelais''. Mandy shortened sail to give the enemy a better chance to catch up, which they did around sunset. Mandby then turned ''Bordelais'' and engaged the larger of the brigs at a range of ten yards. The other two French vessels held off when they realized she could fire her carronades on both broadsides. After about 30 minutes the larger brig
struck Robert Barrie
Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Barrie KCB, KCH (5 May 1774 – 7 June 1841) was a British officer of the Royal Navy noted for his service in the War of 1812. He was helped early in his naval career by the patronage of his uncle, Sir Alan Gardner ...
,
First Lieutenant
First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment.
The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a s ...
of ''Bordelais'', took possession of the brig, which turned out to be the 18-gun gun brig ''Curieuse''. ''Curieuse'' was pierced for 20 guns and carried eighteen long 9-pounders. She had a crew of 168 men under the command of Captain G. Radelet.
Victor "Hughes", governor of Cayenne, had dispatched the three vessels some 28 days earlier to intercept the outward-bound West Indies merchant fleet.
In the engagement ''Bordelais'' had one man killed and seven wounded, generally lightly. ''Curieuse'' had some 50 men killed and wounded. Radelet survived for a few hours but eventually died from having lost both legs. About an hour after the British took possession, ''Bordelais'' started to sink. Manby ordered everyone off her, but 21 British sailors delayed because they were extricating the French wounded. Most of the rescuers were themselves rescued, but seven drowned. Dealing with the situation, securing 120 French prisoners, and repairing sails and rigging delayed ''Bordelais'' until 8p.m. She then set off after the two French vessels that had fled but was unable to find them in the night.
[
In intercepting the three French vessels Manby helped protect the convoy from further predation. Reportedly, the French brig that escaped was ''Mutine'', of sixteen 6-pounder guns and 156 men under the command of J. Reybaud, and the schooner ''Espérance'', of six 4-pounder guns and 52 men under the command of Captain Haywood.][James (1837), Vol. 3, pp.136-7.]
From Barbados ''Bordelais'' made her way to Jamaica via Martinique. She then cruised the Mona Passage
The Mona Passage ( es, Canal de la Mona) is a strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea and is an important shipping route between the Atlantic and the Panama ...
, where apparently she did great damage to the local trade. In one case a cutting out expedition at Aguadilla Bay by boats from ''Bordelais'' and another British vessel cut out a vessel that Manby turned into a tender; this vessel was lost with all hands shortly thereafter.
In a second attack at Aguadilla an attempt to cut out a schooner there ended in failure, but no casualties. The cannon fire from the Spanish defences did so much damage to ''Bordelais'' that she had to return to Port Royal
Port Royal is a village located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest city in the Caribbean, functioning as the centre of shipping and co ...
for repairs.
Next, ''Bordelais'' cut out a small sloop with a cargo of wood from a small harbour on the coast of Puerto Rico. Manby cleared her and fitted her out as a tender. He put his second lieutenant James Gordon in command and gave him a crew of seven men and two boys. Shortly thereafter, a French privateer of one gun and 60 men captured Gordon and his sloop. The privateer took her prize into a small port near Aux Cayes. There they found another sloop, with a cargo of salt, that ''Bordelais'' captured the night before, and that the French had already recaptured, together with her prize crew of a midshipman and four men.
The port was under the control of the Haitian government of Toussaint Louverture
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda; 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture ...
, which threw the crew of the privateer into prison. The men from ''Bordelais'' spent four months in prison but were well treated, with Gordon and the midshipman being permitted to move freely on parole. Eventually all were released to a cartel
A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...
under the command of Captain Kelpoisson, the commander of the port of Aux Cayes, and the only Frenchman in a position of authority. The British arrived at Port Royal (except for one man who had died), where they found out that the war was over. They returned to ''Bordelais'', where Gordon was able to sit down in the officers' mess before any of his fellow officers even knew that he had returned.
On 23 October Barrie replaced Manby. This was a temporary appointment as Barrie was still a lieutenant. ''Bourdelais'' arrived in Portsmouth on 18 January 1802 at the same time as Barrie's promotion to commander was announced.[''Naval Chronicle'', Vol. 7, p.91.]
Then on 29 April 1802 Captain John Hayes replaced Barrie. One source has Commander Barrie as captain of ''Bourdelais'' in July 1802,[''Naval Chronicle'', Vol. 40. Appendix.] but this seems to be in error.
Fate
''Bordelais'' was broken up in August 1804.
Post-script
The lines of ''Bordelais'' were taken in England after her capture; these plans have been reproduced in ''Clippers français''.
Notes, citations, and references
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bordelais (1799)
1799 ships
Captured ships
Maritime incidents in 1799
Privateer ships of France
Sixth rates of the Royal Navy