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BONNE CITOYENNE
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(20) |
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Taken by Capt. Hon. Robert STOPFORD in PHAETON (38) off Cape Finisterre on 10 March 1796.
Sold in 1819. |
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In the British service she was armed with eighteen 32-pounder carronades and two long 9-pounders. Her complement was 120 officers, men and boys. - 1797 Capt. LINDSAY, 01/1797.
- 1797 Capt. RETALICK, 05/1797.
- 1799 Capt. HESBITT, 05/1799.
- In January 1799 she took the Turkish Ambassador to Constantinople and by March she was blockading Malta with an Anglo/Portuguese squadron under Rear-Ad. Marquis de Niza.
At the beginning of March there were strong gales and it was suspected that the French might attempt to come out.
BONNE CITOYENNE was stationed west of Gozo. - 1800 T. J. MALLING, Mediterranean.
On 1 March 1800, with the wind coming round to the S. W., the ships in Valetta were ordered to put out to sea.
BONNE CITOYENNE was ordered to take station off Gozo to ride out the storm. - 1801 Robert JACKSON, Mediterranean.
At Port Mahon on the 2 January he reported that on the 31 December 1800 he had captured the Spanish privateer settee VIVES of Majorca 60 miles S. S. W. of Cape Mola. With ten 9-pounders and 80 men she was ten days out of Palma and had made one capture, a vessel laden with wine bound for Citadella, which Capt. JACKSON recaptured.
She sailed from Gibraltar to Egypt with Lord KEITH's fleet and during the combined attack on the last French stronghold at Alexandria BONNE CITOYENNE, PORT MAHON and CYNTHIA, Capt. H. I. COCHRANE, entered the harbour on 21 August. - Cdr. JACKSON was posted in April 1802 and received the Turkish gold medal for his services on the coast of Egypt.
- 1802 Philip CARTERET, 04/1802, Mediterranean. She was paid off in 1803.
- 1805 Chatham.
- 1808 John THOMPSON, coast of Spain.
- 1809 William MOUNSEY, 18/04/1809.
He first sailed to Lisbon with dispatches for Earl ST. VINCENT. - On 18 June BONNE CITOYENNE and INFLEXIBLE sailed from Spithead with a convoy of merchant ships bound for Quebec.
On 2 July, while investigating a suspicious sail astern, Capt. MOUNSEY lost sight of the convoy. While traversing between 43 and 44 deg. N. and edging westwards to regain the fleet, he fell in with a French frigate on the afternoon of the 5th. in the act of capturing a large English merchant ship. Abandoning the prize, the enemy ship made off to the northward, with BONNE CITOYENNE in pursuit. Eighteen hours later, on the morning of the 6th., the sloop was in pistol shot of the frigate, which brought to. - In an action lasting nearly seven hours BONNE CITOYENNE discharged 129 broadsides, firing alternately from each side. Three of her guns were dismounted early on. The enemy fired more than 70 broadsides which shot away BONNE CITOYENNE's top masts, badly damaged the lower masts and cut the sails, rigging and boats to pieces. When his powder was nearly expended, Capt. MOUNSEY prepared to board, but as he did so, the enemy surrendered. She was LA FURIEUSE, a large frigate which had escaped from the Saintes on 1 April, pierced for 48 guns but only mounting twelve 42-pounder carronades and two long 24-pounders on the main deck and six 8-pounders. She had a crew of 200 and 40 soldiers with small-arms, and a detachment of soldiers from the 60th. regiment of the line. She was carrying a cargo of sugar and coffee from Guadeloupe to France. The prize had 14 shot holes between wind and water and 5 feet of water in the hold. Her masts were too badly wounded to prevent them falling and she had 35 killed and 37 wounded.
BONNE CITOYENNE had only one man, William POKES, seaman, killed and four seamen and one marine wounded.
The efforts of Lieut. Williams SANDOM and Mr ATWATER, the carpenter, made the frigate water-tight and put the sloop into a suitable condition to tow the prize to Halifax where they arrived on 1 August. For 25 days Lieut. SANDOM was scarcely ever off the deck of the frigate as the 37 men of the prize crew kept her afloat and guarded 120 of her late crew.
BONNE CITOYENNE required three lower-masts and top-masts before she was able to return to England in September with a convoy from Quebec.
Mr Joseph SYMES, the first lieutenant, was promoted to commander immediately he became eligible in March 1810, the names of the petty officers were all submitted for promotion, and Mr MOUNSEY was promoted to post captain and appointed to command the prize. The FURIEUSE required a thorough repair and was not ready for commissioning before November 1811. Mr SANDOM joined him as second lieutenant. - 1810 Richard James O'CONNOR, 01/1810, with Thos. LIPSON as his 1st. lieutenant. Cdr. O'CONNOR was promoted to post captain on 21/10/10, the fifth anniversary of Trafalgar.
- 1811 Pitt Burnaby GREENE, Spithead.
He was promoted to post captain on 7 March 1811 when BONNE CITOYENNE was re-classed as a post ship so that he could continue in command. She was principally employed on the South American station and Capt. GREENE was senior officer in the River Plate from December 1811 until September 1812 when Capt. Peter HEYWOOD resumed his previous appointment.
Capt. GREENE sailed from Rio with specie valued at half a million pounds but had to put in at Salvador (Bahia) to heave his ship down after she damaged her keel through grounding. Here she was blockaded by two American vessels.
Capt. Lawrence of the American brig HORNET (20), lying offshore with the USS frigate CONSTITUTION, issued a challenge through the American consul, Mr Hill, for her to come out and fight a single ship action but GREENE, responsible for his precious cargo, refused. In his reply made on the 29 December, he said that he did not consider the outcome of such an encounter to be in doubt but was not convinced that Commodore Bainbridge in CONSTITUTION could stand by and see one of the US ships under his command destroyed.
CONSTITUTION left on the 6 January 1813 and on the 24th. HORNET was chased away by MONTAGUE (74) allowing Capt. GREENE to sail again two days later. He arrived in Portsmouth the following April.
HORNET captured the English brig RESOLUTION from Rio with about 23,000 dollars in specie on the 4 February and then sailed for Demerara where she sank HM Sloop PEACOCK on the 24th. - 1814 Sheerness, later at Portsmouth.
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