''Piémontaise'' was a 40-gun ''Consolante''-class frigate 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 ...

. She served as a

commerce raider Commerce raiding (french: guerre de course, "war of the chase"; german: Handelskrieg, "trade war") is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than eng ...

in the Indian Ocean until her capture in March 1808. She then served with 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 ...

in the East Indies until she was broken up in Britain in 1813.

French service

''Piémontaise'' was built by Enterprise Étheart at

Saint 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 A ...

to a design by François Pastel. On 18 December 1805 she sailed from Brest for Île de France. There she served as a commerce raider under captain Jacques Epron. On 21 June 1806, she captured the

East Indiaman East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

. On 6 September, she captured the 14-gun

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the latter part ...

, the three-masted country ship ''Atomany'', and the

. Between September and October 1807, ''Piémontaise'' captured ''Caroline'', Eggleton or Eggleson, master, ''Sarah'', Henderson, master, , James, master, ''Udny'', Walteas or Wallis, master, ''Danneberg'' or ''Danesburgh'' or ''Castel Dansborg'', Winter, master, ''Highland Chief'', Mahapice or Makepiece, master, ''Eliza'', Sparkes, master, and ''Calcutta''.''Asiatic Annual Register'', Vol. 10, p.123. ''Calcutta'' was a "native ship". Captain James, of ''Maria'', died aboard ''Piémontaise'' on 29 September. ''Piémontaise'' captured on 9 October 1807. She was carrying

toile Toile (French for "canvas") is a textile fabric comparable to fine batiste with a cloth weave. Natural silk or chemical fiber filaments are usually used as materials. The word ''toile'' can refer to the fabric itself or to a test garment sewn ...

and 7,500 sacks of rice. The value of the prize was 215,930.24 francs. In early March 1808, ''Piémontaise'' captured three more merchantmen off Southern India.

Capture

On 6 March 1808, ''Piémontaise'' encountered . The two ships battled for three days until ''Piémontaise'', out of ammunition and having suffered heavy casualties, had to strike her colours on 8 March. The evening before she struck, Lieutenant de vaisseau Charles Moreau, who had been severely wounded, threw himself into the sea. Captain Hardinge, of ''St Fiorenzo'', was killed in the fighting on the last day. Over the three days the British suffered 13 dead and 25 wounded. The French suffered some 48 dead and 112 wounded. Lieutenant William Dawson took command and brought both vessels back to

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

, even though ''Piémontaise's'' three masts fell over her side early in the morning of 9 March. ''Piémontaise'' had on board British Army officers and captains and officers from prizes that she had taken. These men helped organize the

lascar A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland, or other land east of the Cape of Good Hope, who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the middle of t ...

s to jury-rig masts and bring ''Piémontaise'' into port. ''St Fiorenzo'' had too few men, too many casualties, and too many prisoners to guard to provide much assistance. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "San Fiorenzo 8 March 1808" to any surviving claimants from the action.

British service

The British brought ''Piémontaise'' into service as HMS ''Piedmontaise'', commissioning her under Captain Charles Foote. From May to August 1810, she took part in the successful expedition to the

Banda Islands The Banda Islands ( id, Kepulauan Banda) are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about south of Seram Island and about east of Java, and constitute an administrative district (''kecamatan'') within the Centr ...

, along with and . The expedition also included . Foote died in September and Commander Henry D. Dawson replaced him, only to die shortly thereafter. ''Piedmontaise''s next captain was T. Epworth, who was replaced in turn by Captain Henry Edgell.

Fate

''Piémontaise'' was taken out of commission at Woolwich on 12 August 1812. She was broken up in January 1813.

Citations and references

Notes Citations References * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Piemontaise (1804) Age of Sail frigates of France 1804 ships Frigates of the French Navy Frigates of the Royal Navy Consolante-class frigates