HMS ''Belliqueux'' (Eng. ''warlike'') was a 64-gun

third rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Years of experience proved that the third ...

ship of the line of 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 ...

, launched on 5 June 1780 at

Blackwall Yard Blackwall Yard is a small body of water that used to be a shipyard on the River Thames in Blackwall, engaged in ship building and later ship repairs for over 350 years. The yard closed in 1987. History East India Company Blackwall was a sh ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. She was named after the French ship captured in 1758. In 1781 ''Belliqueux'' took part at the Battle of Fort Royal, and in 1782 she was at the

Battle of the Saintes The Battle of the Saintes (known to the French as the Bataille de la Dominique), also known as the Battle of Dominica, was an important naval battle in the Caribbean between the British and the French that took place 9–12 April 1782. The Brit ...

. In 1796 she came under the command of Captain John Inglis who commanded her bravely during the Battle of Camperdown in October 1797. At the

action of 4 August 1800 The action of 4 August 1800 was a highly unusual naval engagement that took place off the Brazilian coast during the French Revolutionary Wars. A French frigate force that had been raiding British commerce off West Africa approached and attem ...

, ''Belliqueux'' captured the French frigate ''Concorde''. After the Dutch Governor Jansens signed a capitulation on 18 January 1806, and the British established control of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

, ''Belliqueux'' escorted the

East Indiamen 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 ...

, , , to Madras. The convoy included the , , , ''Union'', , and ''Sarah Christiana''. At Madras, the captains of the eight East Indiamen in the convoy joined together to present Captain George Byng, of ''Belliqueux'', a piece of silver plate worth £100 as a token of appreciation for his conduct while they were under his orders. Byng wrote his thank you letter to them on 24 April.''Naval Chronicle'', Vol. 17, pp.470-1.

Philip Dundas Philip Dundas (baptised 7 May 1762 – 8 April 1807) was a Scottish East India Company naval officer, president of the East India Marine Board, and superintendent of Bombay. He returned to Britain and became a member of parliament and returned to ...

, Lieutenant-

Governor of Penang The governor of Penang ( ms, Yang di-Pertua Negeri Pulau Pinang) is the head of state of the Malaysian state of Penang. The role of governor is largely ceremonial with the power vested in the executive branch of the state government led by the ...

died on-board ''Belliqueux'' on 8 April 1807, while ''Belliqueux'' was in the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line betwee ...

. ''Belliqueux'' was employed as a

prison ship A prison ship, often more accurately described as a prison hulk, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoners of war or civilian internees. While many nat ...

from 1814, and was broken up in 1816. Midshipman Augustus Brine

Citations

References

* * Ships of the line of the Royal Navy Ardent-class ships of the line 1780 ships Ships built by the Blackwall Yard {{UK-line-ship-stub