''Hébé'' was a 38-gun of the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in th ...

, lead ship of the . The British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

captured her in 1782 and took her into service as HMS ''Hebe''. She was renamed HMS ''Blonde'' in 1805.

French Navy career

Soon after her commissioning under Captain de Vigny, ''Hébé'' was tasked to escort a convoy from Saint Malo to Brest and protect shipping from the depredations of the British Royal Navy in the context of the Anglo-French War. In the

action of 4 September 1782 The action of 4 September 1782 was a small naval engagement fought off the Île de Batz between a French naval frigate, , and a Royal Naval frigate, . This battle was notable as the first proper use of a carronade, and so effective was this we ...

, she was chased by the frigate HMS ''Rainbow'', whose 32-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 fu ...

chase gun A chase gun (or chaser), usually distinguished as bow chaser and stern chaser, was a cannon mounted in the bow (aiming forward) or stern (aiming backward) of a sailing ship. They were used to attempt to slow down an enemy ship either chasing ...

s shot away her wheel and mortally wounded her second captain, Yves-Gabriel Calloët de Lanidy. The weight of the ball made de Vigny mistake ''Rainbow'' for a disguised ship of the line. Even though the first shots had shown that ''Rainbow''s guns had a shorter range than ''Hébés stern chasers, de Vigny never altered his course to take advantage of the longer range of his guns by firing back a full broadside. Later in the morning, the

foremast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation ligh ...

of ''Hébé'' was seriously damaged and another man killed. An hour and a half later, when ''Rainbow'' was about to come alongside, de Vigny could only fire his four of five most rear port guns and immediately struck his colours.

British Royal Navy career

The

took ''Hébé'' into service first as HMS ''Hebe''. In December 1784 ''Hebe'' captured ''Rover'', a smuggling lugger, off the Isle of Wight. ''Rover'' had a cargo of 2000 casks of spirits and a quantity of tea. She had come from Flushing and ''Hebe'' took her into Portsmouth. On 3 July 1795 ''Melampus'' and intercepted a convoy of 13 vessels off

St Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast. The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Al ...

. ''Melampus'' captured an armed brig and ''Hebe'' captured six merchant vessels: ''Maria Louisa'', ''Abeille''. ''Bon Foi'', ''Patrouille'', ''Eleonore'', and ''Pecheur''. The brig of war was armed with four 24-pounders and had a crew of 60 men. Later she was identified as the 4-gun ''Vésuve''. The convoy had been on its way from

Île-de-Bréhat Bréhat (french: Île-de-Bréhat, ) is an island and ''commune'' located near Paimpol, a mile off the northern coast of Brittany. Administratively, it is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in northwestern France. Bréhat is actually a ...

to Brest. , and the

cutter Cutter may refer to: Tools * Bolt cutter * Box cutter, aka Stanley knife, a form of utility knife * Cigar cutter * Cookie cutter * Glass cutter * Meat cutter * Milling cutter * Paper cutter * Side cutter * Cutter, a type of hydraulic rescue to ...

shared in the prize and head money. The Royal Navy took ''Vésuve'' into service as . Because ''Hebe'' served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, which the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants from the campaign. On 24 December 1805, the Navy renamed ''Hebe'' HMS ''Blonde''. On 15 August 1807, ''Blonde'', Captain Volant Vashon Ballard, captured ''Dame Villaret'' after a chase of 13 hours. She was armed with an 18-pounder gun and four 9-pounder carronades, and had a crew of 69 men. She had been out twenty days but had taken no prizes.

Fate

The Royal Navy paid off ''Blonde'' in July 1810. She was eventually broken up at Deptford in June 1811.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes Citations References * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hebe (1782) Age of Sail frigates of France Hébé-class frigates 1782 ships Ships built in France Maritime incidents in 1782 Captured ships Frigates of the Royal Navy