French Gun-vessel Eclair (1793)

The French gun-vessel ''Eclair'' was one of 20 chasse-marées built in 1785 in southern Brittany for use as service craft in harbour construction at Cherbourg. In 1793 Martin or Jacques Fabien converted ten of them into ''chaloupes-canonnières'' (gun-vessels). One of these received the name ''Eclair''. Sir Richard Strachan's squadron captured her in 1795 in Cartaret Bay, and the Royal Navy took her into service as HMS ''Eclair''. She then sailed to the West Indies where she was probably out of service by 1801. In 1802 she was hulked under the name HMS ''Safety''. She then served as a prison ship at Jamaica around 1808 to 1810. She may have been sold at Tortola in 1817/18, but in 1841 or so was brought back into service there as a receiving hulk. She was broken up in 1879.

French service

Between September and November 1793, the chasse maree that became ''Eclair'' was converted to a lugger and armed with three 18-pounder guns.

Between 11 October 1794 and 30 December 1794, ''Eclair'' was under the command of '' enseigne de vaisseau non entretenu'' Bonnaire. She escorted a convoy from Barfleur back to her station at Cherbourg roads.

Then between 30 January 1795 and 29 April she was in the Cherbourg roads under the command of ''enseigne de vaisseau non entretenu'' Duport.

Capture

On 9 May 1795 Strachan, in , was in command of a squadron that attacked and destroyed a French convoy in Cartaret Bay. The British squadron spotted a convoy of 13 vessels and immediately gave chase. Twelve of the quarry escaped and got close to the shore where a small shore battery, their own armed escorts, and a brig and a lugger offered some protection. Strachan sent in the boats from the vessels in his squadron while ''Melampus'' and the ships provided covering fire. The French crews abandoned their vessels at the approach of the British and eventually the shore battery also stopped firing. The cutting out party retrieved all the vessels, save a small sloop, which was hard ashore and which they burnt. ''Melampus'' had eight men wounded and in all the British lost one man killed and 14 wounded. They captured a gun brig and a gun lugger, each armed with three 18-pounder guns. They also captured the convoy, which consisted of: ''Prosperitte'' (80 tons and carrying cordage), ''Montagne'' (200 tons and carrying timber, lead and tin plates), ''Catharine'' (200 tons and carrying ship timber), ''Hyrondelle'' (220 tons and carrying ship timber and pitch), ''Contente'' (250 tons carrying powder), ''Nymphe'' (120 tons and carrying fire wood), ''Bonne-Union'' (150 tons), ''Fantazie'' (45 tons and carrying coals), ''Alexandre'' (397 tons and carrying ship timber, cordage, hemp and cannon), and ''Petit Neptune'' (113 tons and carrying ship timber). A later prize money report added the names of two more vessels, ''Crachefeu'' and ''Eclair''. was the gun-brig and ''Eclair'' the gun-lugger; the Royal Navy took both into service.

British service

The Royal Navy commissioned ''Eclair'' in July 1795 under the command of Lieutenant Joseth icWithers. He then sailed her for the Leeward Islands on 12 April 1796. ''Eclair'' was converted to a schooner in 1796, presumably before she sailed. ''Eclair'' sailed for the Leeward Islands on the same day as ''Crachefeu'', and so possibly in company with her.

''Eclair'' was probably paid-off and laid up before 1801. On 17 January 1801 the British captured the French schooner at Trois-Rivières, in the French Antilles. The Royal Navy commissioned this ''Eclair'' as HMS ''Eclair'', and throughout her subsequent career referred to her as His Majesty's schooner ''Eclair''. Although there were a few cases where two vessels in the same theatre might share a name, generally as soon as the Admiralty became aware of the name conflict it would rename one of the vessels to remove ambiguity. That there were two ''Eclair'' schooners on active duty in the West Indies at the same time is highly improbable.

In 1802 the ''Eclair'' of 1795 returned to service as the hulk HMS ''Safety''. ''Safety'' was listed as a guardship in the West Indies in 1808 and as prison ship in 1810. However, Lieutenant Joseph Williams was appointed to command "the Safety prison ship, at Jamaica" in 1808. Furthermore, ''Lloyd's List'' reported that on 7 April 1808 HMS ''Safety'' had sent ''Tortola'', Fotheringham, master, into Tortola.

''Safety'' was at Tortola in 1817, and the Navy may have disposed of her there in 1817/18. However, ''Safety'' then reappeared as a receiving hulk at Tortola in 1841. The ''Navy List'' of 1862 listed her as "Safety, ''Schooner. Receiving Hulk. Tortola.''"Admiralty (1862), p.216. She was finally broken up in 1879.

Citations

References

*Admiralty (1862) ''The Navy List''. (HM Stationery Office).
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* 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

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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eclair (1793)
1785 ships
Ships built in France
Ships of the French Navy
Captured ships
Schooners of the Royal Navy
Ships of the Royal Navy