HMS Albemarle (1779)
| History | |
|---|---|
.svg){kind=small} France
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| Name: | Ménagère |
| Builder: | Toulon shipyard |
| Acquired: | Purchased in May 1779 |
| Captured: | 24 September 1779, by the Royal Navy |
 Great Britain
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| Name: | HMS Albemarle |
| Acquired: | Captured on 24 September 1779 |
| Commissioned: | 22 November 1779 |
| Fate: | Sold on 1 June 1784 |
 England
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| Owner: | Calvert & Co. |
| Operator: | East India Company, 1791–1793 |
| Acquired: | 1784 or 1790-1 by purchase |
| Captured: | May 1793 |
| Fate: | Subsequent fate is currently unknown |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 520, or 530, or 543 (bm) |
| Length: | 125 ft (38.1 m) |
| Beam: | 31 ft 7 in (9.6 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 13 ft 7 1⁄2 in (4.15 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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HMS Albemarle was a 28-gun sixth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had been built as the French merchantman Ménagère, which the French Navy purchased in 1779. A British squadron captured her in September and she was commissioned into service with the Royal Navy. Amongst her commanders in her short career was Captain Horatio Nelson, who would later win several famous victories over the French. The Navy sold her in 1784. She subsequently became a merchant vessel again. In 1791 she transported convicts to Port Jackson as part of the third fleet. She then sailed to India where she picked up a cargo on behalf of the British East India Company. As she was returning to England a French privateer captured her.
Ménagère was launched in 1776 as a merchant vessel. The French Navy purchased her at Bordeaux in May 1779.
The French government despatched her from Bordeaux for Cap-François, together with other transport vessels. On 22 and 23 September, a Royal Navy squadron under William Hotham, captured seven members of the convoy off San Domingo. The actual captor may have been HMS Albion, though supporting evidence is scarce.
The prize court at Barbados condemned Ménagère on 17 November. At that point the Royal Navy acquired her, the only one out of the seven vessels that the squadron had captured that it wanted to keep.
Captain John Thomas commissioned Ménagère on 22 November, and brought with him the officers and crew from his previous command, the sloop HMS Barbadoes. An additional 44 men transferred from Hotham's flagship HMS Grafton; Albemarle was duly assigned to serve off the Leeward Islands. Captain Thomas Taylor succeeded Thomas on 12 June 1780. Under Taylor, Albemarle was part of Sir George Rodney's fleet during the Battle of Martinique in April 1780, but did not herself take part in the battle.
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Wikipedia