French frigate Coquille (1794)
| History | |
|---|---|
 France
|
|
| Name: | Patriote |
| Namesake: | Seashell |
| Builder: | Bayonne |
| Laid down: | May 1793 |
| Launched: | October 1794 |
| In service: | April 1795 |
| Renamed: | Coquille on 30 May 1795 |
| Captured: | 12 October 1798 |
 United Kingdom
|
|
| Name: | HMS Coquille |
| Acquired: | 12 October 1798 |
| Fate: | Accidental fire in December 1798 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Coquille class frigate |
| Displacement: | 1,180 tons (French) |
| Tons burthen: | 898 bm |
| Length: | 43.8 m (144 ft) |
| Beam: | 11.4 m (37 ft) |
| Draught: | 5.3 m (17 ft) |
| Depth of hold: | 3.6 m (12 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Ship |
| Complement: | 209 (peace) & 282 (war) |
| Armament: | |
Coquille was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class, and launched in 1794. The Royal Navy captured her in October 1798 and took her into service as HMS Coquille, but an accidental fire destroyed her in December.
Built as Patriote, she was renamed Coquille on 30 May 1795.
On 20 March 1796 she was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Chesnneau. While she was escorting a convoy from Brest to the Île-d'Aix roads she encountered a British squadron near Audierne. The British squadron was under the command of Captain Sir John Borlase Warren in Pomone, and included Anson, Artois and Galatea. They engaged the French squadron escorting the convoy near the Bec du Raz. The British captured four brigs from the convoy and Warren instructed the hired armed lugger Valiant to take them to the nearest port. (The four brigs were the Illier, Don de Dieu, Paul Edward, and Félicité.)
The British squadron then engaged the French warships escorting the convoy but were not able to bring them to a full battle before having to give up the chase due to the onset of dark and the dangerous location. Galatea was the only vessel in the British squadron to suffer casualties; she lost two men killed and six wounded. The store-ship Etoile, under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Mathurin-Théodore Berthelin, struck. She was armed with thirty 12-pounder guns and had a crew of 160 men. Four French frigates (Coquille among them), a corvette, a brig, and the rest of the convoy escaped.
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Wikipedia