HMS Tartar's Prize (1757)
| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain
|
|
| Name: | Tartar's Prize |
| Launched: | 1756 as French privateer from Le Havre |
| Completed: | July 1757 |
| Acquired: | 23 March 1757 |
| Commissioned: | March 1757 |
| In service: | 1757–1760 |
| Honours and awards: |
Battle of Lagos, 1759 |
| Fate: | Foundered off Sardinia, 2 March 1760 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 24-gun sixth-rate |
| Tons burthen: | 424 65⁄94 bm |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 28 ft 4 in (8.6 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 13 ft 3 in (4.0 m) |
| Complement: | 160 |
| Armament: |
|
HMS Tartar's Prize was a 24-gun sixth-rate of the Royal Navy, which saw active service between 1756 and 1760, during the Seven Years' War.
Originally the French privateer La Marie Victoire, she was captured by HMS Tartar in 1757 and refitted as a privateer hunter. In this role she secured a single victory at sea with the capture of the French vessel La Marquise de Chateaunois. A flimsily built vessel, Tartar's Prize sprang a leak and foundered off the coast of Sardinia in 1760.
The French privateer La Marie Victoire was constructed at the port of Le Havre in 1756. As built, the vessel was 117 ft 3 in (35.7 m) long with a 99 ft 5.5 in (30.3 m) keel, a beam of 28 ft 4 in (8.6 m) and a hold depth of 13 ft 3 in (4.0 m). Her armament as a privateer was 26 guns; when fitted out in 1757 as Tartar's Prize she carried 20 six-pounder cannons along her upper deck, and four nine-pounder guns on the quarterdeck. Her designated Royal Navy complement was 160 officers and ratings.
La Marie Victoire was put to sea in 1756, in the early stages of the Seven Years' War, to hunt British merchant ships returning home through the English Channel. She had no recorded victories; on 27 March 1756 she encountered the 28-gun sixth-rate frigate HMS Tartar and was quickly overwhelmed. A British prize crew sailed her to Portsmouth where she was purchased by the Admiralty on 29 April for a sum of £4,258 (equivalent to £571,175 in 2015). This purchase price caused dissent among Tartar's crew as Portsmouth's merchants had made a counter-offer of more than £5,000, the acceptance of which would have increased the prize money. Perhaps with an eye to their future careers, Tartar's officers accepted the Admiralty's lower offer but requested indemnification against any legal action brought by the crew for loss of earnings.
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Wikipedia