French frigate Seine (1794)

HMS Jason attacking the French frigate Seine
History
France
Name:	Seine
Builder:	Le Havre
Laid down:	May 1793
Launched:	19 December 1793
Completed:	By March 1794
Captured:	30 June 1798, by the Royal Navy
UK
Name:	HMS Seine
Acquired:	30 June 1798
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Seine 20 Augt. 1800"
Fate:	Grounded on 21 July 1803 Burnt on 22 July to prevent capture
General characteristics
Class and type:	38-gun Seine-class fifth rate
Tons burthen:	1,145​87⁄94 (bm)
Length:	156 ft 9 in (47.8 m) (overall) 131 ft 9 in (40.2 m) (keel)
Beam:	40 ft 6 in (12.3 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft 4 1⁄4 in (3.8 m)
Sail plan:	Full-rigged ship
Complement:	284
Armament:	Upper deck: 28 x 18-pounder guns QD: 8 x 9-pounder guns Fc: 4 x 9-pounder guns

Seine was a 38-gun French Seine-class frigate that the Royal Navy captured in 1798 and commissioned as the fifth rate HMS Seine. On 20 August 1800, Seine captured the French ship Vengeance in a single ship action that would win for her crew the Naval General Service Medal. Seine's career ended in 1803 when she hit a sandbank near the Texel.

Seine was a 40-gun frigate built between May 1793 and March 1794 at Le Havre, having been launched on 19 December 1793.Seine's career with the French Navy lasted less than five years.

On 14 July 1794 she and Galathée captured the 16-gun sloop-of-war HMS Hound in the Atlantic. In late 1794, L'Hermitte's squadron sailed for Norway. It comprised the frigates Seine, under L'Hermitte, Galathée, under Labutte, and Républicaine, under Le Bozec.

The squadron found itself blocked by cold and damage in a Norwegian harbour during the entire winter of 1794-95, sustaining over 250 dead from illness out of a total complement of 880. In spring, Seine and Galathée returned to France, leaving Républicaine to care for the untransportable sick. They eventually were rescued by the corvette Subtile.

Seine then sailed for Île de France, where she joined the squadron under Sercey. She took part in the Action of 8 September 1796. In March 1798, she sailed from Île de France and was on her way to Lorient when she encountered a British frigate squadron in the Breton Passage on 30 June 1798.