French corvette Sartine (1778)
| History | |
|---|---|
 France
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| Name: | Sartine |
| Namesake: | Antoine de Sartine (French statesman) |
| Builder: | Bordeaux |
| Laid down: | c. September 1775 |
| Launched: | 1776 |
| Acquired: | 1778 by requisition |
| Captured: | 25 August 1778 |
.svg){kind=small} Great Britain
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| Name: | HMS Sartine |
| Acquired: | 25 August 1778 |
| Commissioned: | 2 February 1779 |
| Fate: | Foundered 26 November 1780 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 550 tonnes |
| Tons burthen: | 802 18⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 35 ft 9 in (10.9 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 15 ft (4.6 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement: |
Merchantman: 40 men British service: 200 men |
| Armament: |
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Merchantman: 40 men
HMS Sartine was a French merchant vessel from Bordeaux. The French Navy pressed her into service on 3 August 1778 to assist in the defense of Pondichéry. The British captured her during the Siege of Pondicherry (1778), and took her into service under her existing name. HMS Sartine foundered in action off Calicut in November 1780.
In 1775 the shipowner Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat (1719-97) decided to finance an expedition to the East Indies in order to take advantage of the opportunity presented by a relaxation of the monopoly on the trade hitherto awarded to the French East India Company at Lorient. He commissioned the construction of a vessel in 1775, the Sartine which left France on 19 September 1776 with instructions to sell her cargo on the Malabar coast, pick up a cargo for China, there pick up a cargo of silks and other textiles for France, and return in 1778. Sartine reached Colombo on 2 February 1777. From there she sailed to Cochin, Mahé, Mangalore, Goa, Surat and Chaoul, then an important trading port about 30 kilometers south of Bombay. On 24 August she sailed for China via Ceylon and the Strait of Malacca. Hurricane damage in October forced Sartine to abandon the voyage to China and instead to return to Malacca for repairs. By 14 January 1778 Sartine was at Pondicherry. From there she made a trading voyage to Karaikal, like Mahé and Pondichéry a French colony. After her return to Pondichéry, the French government requisitioned Sartine and armed her for the defense of the colony against the British.
On 10 August 1778, Sartine was part of a squadron under Admiral François l'Ollivier de Tronjoly, which consisted of the 64-gun ship of the line Brillant, the frigate Pourvoyeuse and three smaller ships, Sartine, Lawriston, and Brisson. The French encountered Admiral Edward Vernon's squadron, consisting of Rippon (Vernon's flagship), Coventry, Seahorse, Cormorant, and the East India Company's ship Valentine, early on the morning. An inconclusive action followed for about two hours in mid-afternoon. The French broke off the action and the British vessels were too damaged to be able to catch them up again. In the action the British suffered 11 men killed and 53 wounded.
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