HMS ''Vengeur'' was a 74-gun
third-rate of the
Royal Navy, launched on 19 June 1810 at
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on- ...
.
She had an uneventful career, having participated in no battles or engagements.
Service
On 30 August 1810, Captain Thomas Brown took command of ''Vengeur'', the flagship of Admiral Sir
Joseph Sidney Yorke
Admiral Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke KCB (6 June 1768 – 5 May 1831) was an officer of the Royal Navy. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of the Saintes in April 1782 during the American Revolutionary War. He commanded at the defeat ...
. Brown escorted to Portugal a large body of troops sent as reinforcements to the
Duke of Wellington's army there. ''Vengeur'' then cruised the Western Isles to protect an inbound fleet of
East Indiamen.
Brown's replacement in November 1811 was Captain
James Brisbane
Captain Sir James Brisbane, CB (1774 – 19 December 1826) was a British Royal Navy officer of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Although never engaged in any major actions, Brisbane served under both Lord Howe and Horatio Nels ...
. Robert Tristram Ricketts took command of ''Vengeur'' in October 1813.
''Vengeur'', , and were in company on 6 March 1814 at the recapture of the ''Diamond''.
In May 1814, the
9th Regiment of Foot
9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding .
Evolution of the Arabic digit
In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...
marched from Bayonne to Bordeaux and embarked on
''York'' and ''Vengeur'' to sail to
Quebec to lend support to the British Army in the fight against the Americans during the
War of 1812.
''Vengeur'' then joined Vice Admiral
Alexander Cochrane
Admiral of the Blue Sir Alexander Inglis Cochrane (born Alexander Forrester Cochrane; 23 April 1758 – 26 January 1832) was a senior Royal Navy commander during the Napoleonic Wars and achieved the rank of admiral.
He had previously captain ...
's fleet moored off New Orleans on New Year's Day, having escorted troopships carrying the battalions of the
7th Regiment of Foot and
43rd Regiment of Foot
The 43rd (Monmouthshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1741. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) to form the 1st and 2nd battalions of t ...
.
[Levinge, p. 217.] The Commanding Officer of the ''Vengeurs Marine detachment, Brevet Major Thomas Adair, was made a Companion of the
Order of the Bath for leading a party of 100
Royal Marines
The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...
on a successful assault on the left bank of the Mississippi River.
Although the strongpoint was taken, and seventeen cannons were captured,
the battle was lost as the right bank remained impregnable. Of the two fatalities among the Royal Marines, one was from HMS ''Vengeur''.
Ricketts commanded the British naval forces at the Second
Battle of Fort Bowyer, the British attack on the American fort at
Mobile Point Mobile Point is the apex of a long, low, narrow, sandy peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico on the south and Bon Secour Bay and Navy Cove on the north. The point is the eastern limit of the entrance into Mobile Bay, which it partially encloses. It ...
in 1815.
The British then attacked and captured Fort Bowyer at the mouth of Mobile Bay on 12 February. The British were making preparations to attack Mobile when news of the peace treaty arrived. The British Parliament had ratified the
Treaty of Ghent, but Congress and the President would approve it in mid-February.
Captain Thomas Alexander took command in August 1815. ''Vengeur'' served as a guardship at Portsmouth from June 1816 to May 1818. From October to December, she was fitted out for sea.
Frederick Lewis Maitland took command of ''Vengeur'' in October 1818 and in 1819 sailed her to South America. He took
Lord George Beresford from
Rio de Janeiro to
Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
in 1820 and then returned to the Mediterranean. He then carried
Ferdinand I Ferdinand I or Fernando I may refer to:
People
* Ferdinand I of León, ''the Great'' (ca. 1000–1065, king from 1037)
* Ferdinand I of Portugal and the Algarve, ''the Handsome'' (1345–1383, king from 1367)
* Ferdinand I of Aragon and Sicily, '' ...
, King of the
Two Sicilies, from
Naples to
Livorno
Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...
on his way to attend the
Congress of Laibach (modern
Ljubljana). The passage was rough and lasted seven days, but they arrived safely on 20 December. After His Majesty landed, he invested Maitland with the insignia of a knight-commander of the order of St. Ferdinand and Merit. He gave him a gold box with the king's portrait set in diamonds.
[Anderson (1862), Vol. 2, p.637.] Maitland and ''Vengeur'' then returned to England, arriving at Spithead on 29 March 1821. ''Vengeur'' was found to be defective and was paid off on 18 May 1821 at Sheerness.
Fate
She was fitted as a receiving ship between July 1823 and February 1824. She then went to Shearness, where she served as a receiving ship until 1838. She was broken up in 1843.
Notes
Citations
References
* Anderson, William (1862) ''The Scottish nation: or The surnames, families, literature, honours, and biographical history of the people of Scotland''.(Google eBook)
* Lavery, Brian (2003) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. .
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vengeur (1810)
Ships of the line of the Royal Navy
Vengeur-class ships of the line
1810 ships
Ships built in Harwich
War of 1812 ships of the United Kingdom