HMS Modeste (1793)

History
Engraving by Nicolas Ozanne showing the capture of Modeste in the harbour of Genoa
France
Name:	Modeste
Builder:	Toulon
Laid down:	February 1785
Launched:	18 March 1786
Completed:	January 1787
Captured:	By the Royal Navy on 17 October 1793
UK
Name:	HMS Modeste
Acquired:	17 October 1793
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"
Fate:	Broken up in June 1814
General characteristics
Class and type:	36-gun fifth rate frigate
Displacement:	1,100 tons (French)
Tons burthen:	940 ³⁵⁄₉₄ (bm)
Length:	143 ft 8 in (43.8 m) (overall) 118 ft 3 in (36.0 m) (keel)
Beam:	38 ft 8 in (11.8 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft 1 ¹⁄₂ in (3.70 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	270
Armament:	French service Upper deck: 26 x 12-pounder guns Spar deck:6 x 6-pounder guns British service Upper deck: 26 x 18-pounder guns QD: 14 x 32-pounder carronades Fc: 2 x 9-pounder guns + 2 x 32-pounder carronades

HMS Modeste was a 36-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had previously been a ship of the French Navy under the name Modeste. Launched in France in 1786, she served during the first actions of the French Revolutionary Wars until being captured while in harbour at Genoa, in circumstances disputed by the French and British, and which created a diplomatic incident. Taken into British service she spent the rest of the French Revolutionary and most of the Napoleonic Wars under the white ensign. She served with distinction in the East Indies, capturing several privateers and enemy vessels, including the French corvette Iéna. She also saw service in a variety of roles, as a troopship, a receiving ship, and a floating battery, until finally being broken up in 1814, as the Napoleonic Wars drew to a close.

Modeste was a Magicienne-class frigate built at Toulon between February 1785 and January 1787, having been launched there on 18 March 1786. In September 1793 she entered the neutral port of Genoa, where according to British reports, her captain was seized by the French Republican agent in the port, who suspected the frigate as having come from the Royalist-held Toulon on some secret mission. The British had been dissatisfied with the actions of the neutral Genoa, in allowing the Modeste and two French tartanes to 'insult' and 'molest' the frigate Aigle while she was also in Genoa. Furthermore the French were alleged to have seized a ship travelling under an assurance of safe passage from Lord Hood. The British envoy in Genoa, Francis Drake, was instructed to seek reparations from the Genoese, and to put a stop to the shipment of grain to the French Republicans.

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Wikipedia