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HMS Sartine (1778)

History
French Navy EnsignFrance
Name: Sartine
Namesake: Antoine de Sartine (French statesman)
Builder: Bordeaux
Laid down: c. September 1775
Launched: 1776
Acquired: 1778 by requisition
Captured: 25 August 1778
Royal Navy Ensign (1707–1801)Great Britain
Name: HMS Sartine
Acquired: 25 August 1778
Commissioned: 2 February 1779
Fate: Foundered 26 November 1780
General characteristics
Displacement: 550 tonnes
Tons burthen: 802 1894 (bm)
Length:
  • 132 ft 6 in (40.4 m) (overall)
  • 118 ft 0 in (36.0 m) (keel)
Beam: 35 ft 9 in (10.9 m)
Depth of hold: 15 ft (4.6 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement:

Merchantman: 40 men

British service: 200 men
Armament:
  • Merchantman:12 x 12-pounder guns + 6 swivel guns
  • French service:26 x 8-pounder guns + 6 swivel guns
  • British service:
  • Gundeck: 26 × 9-pounder guns
  • QD & Fc: 6 × 6-pounder guns

Merchantman: 40 men

HMS Sartine was a French merchant vessel from Bordeaux. The French Navy pressed her into service on 3 August 1778 to assist in the defense of Pondichéry. The British captured her during the Siege of Pondicherry (1778), and took her into service under her existing name. HMS Sartine foundered in action off Calicut in November 1780.

In 1775 the shipowner Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat (1719-97) decided to finance an expedition to the East Indies in order to take advantage of the opportunity presented by a relaxation of the monopoly on the trade hitherto awarded to the French East India Company at Lorient. He commissioned the construction of a vessel in 1775, the Sartine which left France on 19 September 1776 with instructions to sell her cargo on the Malabar coast, pick up a cargo for China, there pick up a cargo of silks and other textiles for France, and return in 1778. Sartine reached Colombo on 2 February 1777. From there she sailed to Cochin, Mahé, Mangalore, Goa, Surat and Chaoul, then an important trading port about 30 kilometers south of Bombay. On 24 August she sailed for China via Ceylon and the Strait of Malacca. Hurricane damage in October forced Sartine to abandon the voyage to China and instead to return to Malacca for repairs. By 14 January 1778 Sartine was at Pondicherry. From there she made a trading voyage to Karaikal, like Mahé and Pondichéry a French colony. After her return to Pondichéry, the French government requisitioned Sartine and armed her for the defense of the colony against the British.

On 10 August 1778, Sartine was part of a squadron under Admiral François l'Ollivier de Tronjoly, which consisted of the 64-gun ship of the line Brillant, the frigate Pourvoyeuse and three smaller ships, Sartine, Lawriston, and Brisson. The French encountered Admiral Edward Vernon's squadron, consisting of Rippon (Vernon's flagship), Coventry, Seahorse, Cormorant, and the East India Company's ship Valentine, early on the morning. An inconclusive action followed for about two hours in mid-afternoon. The French broke off the action and the British vessels were too damaged to be able to catch them up again. In the action the British suffered 11 men killed and 53 wounded.


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