HMS Sybille (1794)

HMS Sybille capturing the Chiffonne
History
France
Name:	Sibylle
Namesake:	Sybil
Builder:	Toulon
Laid down:	April 1790
Launched:	30 August 1791
In service:	May 1792
Captured:	17 June 1794
United Kingdom
Name:	Sybille
Acquired:	17 June 1794
Decommissioned:	1833
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Sybille 28 Feby. 1799"
General characteristics
Class and type:	Hébé-class frigate
Displacement:	700 tonnes
Length:	46.3 m (152 ft)
Beam:	11.9 m (39 ft)
Draught:	5.5 m (18 ft)
Complement:	297
Armament:	French Service: Gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder long guns Fc and QD: 8 × 8-pounder long guns British service: 1794: Gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns QD: 12 9-pounder guns Fc: 4 9-pounder guns 1799: Gundeck: 4 × 9-pounder guns and 12 × 32-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns and 6 × 32-pounder carronades Later: QD: 8 × 9-pounder guns + 6 × 32-pounder carronades

Sibylle was a 38-gun Hébé-class frigate of the French Navy. She was launched in 1791 at the dockyards in Toulon and placed in service in 1792. After the 50-gun fourth rate HMS Romney captured her in 1794, the British took her into service as HMS Sybille. She served in the Royal Navy until disposed of in 1833. While in British service Sybille participated in three notable single ship actions, in each case capturing a French vessel. On anti-slavery duties off West Africa from July 1827 to June 1830, Sybille captured numerous slavers and freed some 3,500 slaves. She was finally sold in 1833 in Portsmouth.

From 23 April 1790 to October–December 1792, Sibylle escorted a convoy and transferred funds from Toulon to Smyrna, first under Capitaine de vaisseau (CV) Grasse-Briançon and then CV de Venel. From March 1793 to January 1794, under CV Rondeau, she escorted convoys between Toulon and Marseilles and then she moved to the Levant station. She cruised the Aegean Sea, and in June 1794 she was escorting a convoy from Candia to Mykonos.

On 17 June, as Sybille was anchored in Miconi along with three merchantmen bound for Cadiz, a British convoy escorted by HMS Romney, under Captain Paget, and three frigates appeared.Romney approached and demanded that Sibylle hoist a white flag, to which Rondeau retorted that he could not fly another flag than that of the Republic.

Romney opened fire, and after one hour and a half of gunnery exchanges, Sibylle struck to her much more powerful opponent. Paget took possession of Sibylle and the merchantmen, but put the crew and Rondeau ashore.Sibylle was taken into British service as HMS Sybille.

In 1798, now named Sybille, the ship served off the Philippines, participating in the bloodless Raid on Manila. In December, she gave chase to the privateer Clarisse, under Robert Surcouf. Clarisse escaped by throwing eight guns overboard.