''Jean Bart'' was a merchant vessel built at Bayonne in 1786. Her owners commissioned her at Nantes in 1793 as a privateer. 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 t ...
requisitioned her in January 1794 and classed her as a corvette and listed her as ''Jean Bart No. 2'' to distinguish her from the . The Navy intended to rename her ''Imposant'' in May 1795, but 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 ...
captured her first.
On 15 April 1795, a naval squadron under Sir
John Borlase Warren gave chase to ''Jean Bart'', described in the report of the capture as being a ship-corvette of 26 guns and 187 men. The actual captor, off the
Île de Ré, was .
The Royal Navy took ''Jean Bart'' into service as the
post ship HMS ''Laurel''. Between July and 8 December 1795 the Royal Navy had ''Laurel'' fitted a Portsmouth. She had been
flush-deck
Flush deck is a term in naval architecture. It can refer to any deck of a ship which is continuous from stem to stern.
History
The flush deck design originated with rice ships built in Bengal Subah, Mughal India (modern Bangladesh), resulting ...
ed, but received a small forecastle, quarterdeck, and extra platforms. She was commissioned under Captain Robert Rolles. He had been promoted to
post captain on 12 August 1785; he had been captain of the
hired armed ship .
Rolles sailed ''Laurel'' for the coast of Africa and then the Leeward Islands. In May 1796 ''Laurel'' participated in the capture of
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindian ...
under Rear Admiral Sir
Hugh Cloberry Christian and General
Ralph Abercrombie
Lieutenant General Sir Ralph Abercromby (7 October 173428 March 1801) was a British soldier and politician. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in the British Army, was appointed Governor of Trinidad, served as Commander-in-Chief, Ir ...
, and shared in the prize money for the capture.
''Laurel'' was sold in 1797 at Jamaica.
Citations
References
*
*Schomberg, Isaac (1802) Naval Chronology, Or an Historical Summary of Naval and Maritime Events from the Time of the Romans, to the Treaty of Peace 1802: With an Appendix, Volume 4. (London: T. Egerton).
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jean Bart (1786)
Ships built in France
1786 ships
Privateer ships of France
Corvettes of the French Navy
Post ships of the Royal Navy
Captured ships