History | |
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France | |
Name: | Alceste |
Ordered: | 20 April 1780 |
Builder: | Toulon shipyard |
Laid down: | May 1780 |
Launched: | 28 October 1780 |
Commissioned: | February 1781 |
Captured: | by Britain, 29 August 1793 |
Kingdom of Sardinia | |
Name: | Alceste |
Acquired: | 29 August 1793 |
Captured: | By Boussole on 8 June 1794 |
France | |
Name: | Alceste |
Acquired: | 8 June 1794 |
Captured: | By HMS Bellona, 18 June 1799 |
United Kingdom | |
Name: | Alceste |
Acquired: | 18 June 1799 |
Fate: | Floating battery (1801); broken up in May 1802 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Magicienne class frigate |
Displacement: |
|
Tons burthen: | 932 (bm) |
Length: | 44.2 m (145 ft) |
Beam: | 11.2 m (37 ft) |
Draught: | 5.2 m (17 ft) (22 French feet) |
Complement: | 240 in British service; 96 as a floating battery |
Armament: | 26 × 12-pounder long guns + 6 × 6-pounder long guns |
Armour: | Timber |
Alceste was a Magicienne class frigate of the French Navy, launched in 1780, that the British seized at the Siege of Toulon. They transferred her to the Kingdom of Sardinia, but the French recaptured her a year later in the Action of 8 June 1794. The British captured her again at the Action of 18 June 1799 and took her into service as HMS Alceste. In 1801 she became a floating battery and she was sold the next year.
At the outbreak of the French Revolution, Alceste served in the Mediterranean until she was put in the reserved and disarmed in Toulon. The royalist insurrection found her there; the British, who supported the royalists, seized her and transferred her to the Kingdom of Sardinia before the conclusion of the Siege of Toulon.
The 32-gun Boudeuse recaptured her in the Action of 8 June 1794. The French then took her back into French service. On 4 August 1794 Alceste and Vestale were off Cape Bon when they encountered and captured the brig HMS Scout. The French took Scout into service under existing name, but she wrecked on 12 December 1795 off Cadiz.
Under Captain Louis-Jean-Nicolas Lejoille, Alceste was part of Admiral Martin's squadron, which captured HMS Berwick in 1795.
Jean Joseph Hubert took command of Alceste on 31 March 1795. She took part in the Battle of Hyères Islands, where she battled several British ships before rescuing Alcide.