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AFRICAINE
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She was mounting 48 guns. Taken by Capt. Robert BARLOW in PHOEBE in the Mediterranean on 19 February 1801.
Broken up in 1816. |
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- 1801 Capt. STEVENSON. She arrived in Portsmouth from Malta on 31 January 1802 and sailed again to Chatham on 7 February to be paid off before being re-fitted.
- 1802 Capt. Thomas MANBY, 11/1802.
Earl ST. VINCENT, giving him the appointment said that he did not like to see an active officer idle on shore. She was commissioned at Deptford and, while on his way to the Nore, Capt. MANBY landed a impressment force at Gravesend which secured 394 prime seamen between midnight and sun rise the following morning.
From the Nore AFRICAINE was ordered to blockade two French frigates in Helvoetsluys and she remained on this service for two years until the frigates were dismantled.
When the French general at Scheveling fired on four boys shrimping in AFRICAINE's jolly boat Capt. MANBY retaliated by seized sixty fishing boats and sending most of them to Yarmouth thus depriving the Hague of fish for many weeks. - On 20 July 1803 the first lieutenant of AFRICAINE, Mr William Henry DILLON, was sent into Helvoetsluys in a boat from the LEDA with a flag of truce. He was detained by the Dutch Commodore Valterbuck until he could be taken prisoner by men from the French frigate FURIEUSE. After nearly dying of a fever caught on board the French ship he was eventually moved to the prison camp at Verdun where he remained until exchanged in September 1807.
- Capt. MANBY sailed from Yarmouth on 4 October 1804 and took Rear Ad. RUSSELL out to the EAGLE, one of the fleet of 5 sail-of-the-line, 3 frigates, 2 brigs and 5 cutters watching the Dutch fleet in the Texel. He returned on the 7th. with Rear Ad. THORNBOROUGH who immediately set off for Gloucester in a post-chaise and four. AFRICAINE put in for a refit with orders to proceed to sea as soon as possible.
- During a gale off the Texel a piece of AFRICAINE's rudder broke off and damaged the stern post. GLATTON escorted her to Yarmouth where she was only saved from being driven ashore by cutting away all her masts.
She was re-fitted at Sheerness and escorted a large convoy to the West Indies on 19 June 1805, calling at Surinam, Demerara, and various islands. She arrived in Barbados with a crew of 340 men all in perfect health.
Sir Alexander COCHRANE ordered him to return to England with the homebound trade, taking as passengers invalids from the hospitals in Barbados. 48 hours after sailing yellow fever broke out which killed one third of the crew of 340 men in the six weeks it took her to reach Falmouth. After spending 40 days in quarantine off the Scilly Islands she was put out of commission at Sheerness - 1807 Fitting out at Chatham in the spring. Later Capt. Richard RAGGETT, Plymouth.
AFRICAINE carried Lieut. General Lord Cathcart to Swedish Pomerania where King Gustavus was defending his territory against an invading French army and then joined Admiral GAMBIER's fleet for the attack on Copenhagen. One of the captured Danish frigates was manned by men from AFRICAINE and taken safely into the Medway. Later in the year she accompanied Sir Samuel HOOD to Madeira where the garrison surrendered without resistance on 26 September. - 1808 Spithead.
- 1810 Capt. Robert CORBETT, Indian Ocean.
AFRICAINE sailed from Plymouth in June 1810 with dispatches for the Governor-General of India containing orders to organise an expedition against Reunion and Mauritius. When he touched at Rodriguez to replenish water on 9 September Capt. CORBETT learnt that Reunion (Isle of Bourbon) was now in British hands so he decided to go there to join Commodore JOSHUA ROWLEY'S squadron. He arrived on the 10th. and the following day AFRICAINE chased a French schooner off the Ile Ronde, Mauritius (Ile de France), and drove her up a small creek. Two boats, under Lieut. George FORDER in the barge and master's mate Jenkin JONES, who commanded the jolly boat, were sent in but, although they boarded her, she had to be abandoned when soldiers on the banks killed two men and wounded sixteen, including Lieut. James JACKSON, RM , midshipman Henry SEWELL and Jenkin JONES.
When she returned to Reunion to land her wounded on the 12th. two frigates and a brig were seen to windward. They were the French IPHIGENIE (38) ASTREE (38) and the ENTREPRENANTE. BOADICEA, OTTER and STAUNCH came out to join AFRICAINE which was chasing after the enemy some 8 miles distant. She closed to within 2 miles as it got dark and threw up some rockets to indicate her position to BOADICEA, then out of sight. In a heavy squall the French bore up and AFRICAINE found herself within musket shot of ASTREE into which she poured a double-shotted broadside.
Capt. CORBETT was mortally wounded when the enemy replied and command devolved on Lieut. Joseph TULLIDGE. When ASTREE ranged ahead and IPHIGENIE bore up he ran AFRICAINE between them and opened fire on both sides.
After two hours AFRICAINE's masts and hull were in a shattered state, Lieut. TULLIDGE was wounded in four places, Lieut. Robert FORDER had been shot through the breast and the head of the master, Samuel PARKER, had been removed by a round shot. With her decks covered with killed and wounded and BOADICEA still 4 miles to leeward Lieut. TULLIDGE surrendered, although the enemy continued to fire into her for some minutes after.
Out of 295 men and boys, including 25 soldiers of the 86th. regiment, AFRICAINE lost 49 killed and 114 wounded including John THEED and Jenkin JONES, master's mates; and Messrs. Charles MERCIER and Robert LEECH, midshipmen. The French found the shot lockers full and the racks around the hatchway still contained many shot.
It was suggested that the AFRICAINE's crew, disgusted by Capt. CORBETT's tyrannical conduct, did not shot the guns after the second or third broadside.
At about the same time that AFRICAINE struck, BOADICEA found some wind and she came up with the French soon after daylight. Meanwhile Lieut. TULLIDGE and about ninety of AFRICAINE's people had been removed into the French frigates and remained prisoners on Mauritius until it surrendered in December. In the afternoon ASTREE abandoned AFRICAINE as a hulk and took IPHIGENIE in tow. They arrived in Port Louis on the morning of the 22nd. BOADICEA found OTTER and STAUNCH and took AFRICAINE in tow. - On 23 April 1811 a court martial on board GLADIATOR at Portsmouth investigated the circumstances of her capture and Lieut. TULLIDGE was honourably acquitted of all blame and his conduct praised. He was promoted to commander the following August. In 1816 he received a pension of 150 pounds per annum.
- In October 1810 Vice Ad. BERTIE arrived at St. Paul's and shifted his flag from the NISUS frigate to the totally dismasted AFRICAINE and directed Lieut. Edward LLOYD of BOADICEA to get her ready for sea. This was accomplished using the lower masts, yards and sails from a recaptured East Indiaman and on 14 December she sailed again with a crew of 30 sailors, a company of the 87th. regiment and about 120 blacks from the plantations. Thus miserably manned she cruised off Port Louis with BOADICEA, NISUS, CEYLON, NEREIDE and STAUNCH until other ships arrived from India to take part in the assault on Mauritius.
- Capt. Philip BEAVER removed from NISSUS to command AFRICAINE.
The masters of AFRICAINE and BOADICEA, together with Lieut. STREET of STAUNCH, examined and sounded the whole leeward side of the island and discovered a fleet anchorage at the north end between Gunners' Quoin and the mainland with passages for boats through the reef.
The 50 or 60 transports and warships anchored there on the morning of 29 November and in the afternoon the first divisions of the army were landed. The disembarkation was completed in the evening and the force moved off towards Port Louis. The naval brigade drawn from the ships of the squadron was commanded by Capt. MONTAGUE of CORNWALLIS and included Lieut. LLOYD with men from AFRICAINE.
At Fort Tortue, which had been captured by a landing party from NISSUS, they established contact with the fleet and obtained new supplies then, as the army positioned itself for a general attack on the enemy positions, the French governor offered to capitulate. - 1812 Capt. Edward RODNEY, East Indies. His appointment was dated September 1810.
- 1816 Portsmouth.
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