HMS Unite (1803)
| History | |
|---|---|
.svg){kind=small}  France
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| Name: | Impérieuse |
| Ordered: | 27 November 1785 |
| Builder: | Toulon |
| Laid down: | February 1786 |
| Launched: | 11 July 1787 |
| Commissioned: | May 1788 |
| Captured: | 11 October 1793 |
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Imperieuse |
| Acquired: | 11 October 1793 |
| Renamed: | HMS Unite on 3 September 1803 |
| Reclassified: | Harbour service from 1832 |
| Fate: | Broken up January 1858 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 700 (bm) |
| Length: | 46.1 metres |
| Beam: | 11.7 metres |
| Draught: | 5.5 metres |
| Armament: | 44 guns |
The Impérieuse was a 40-gun Minerve-class frigate of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1793 and she served first as HMS Imperieuse and then from 1803 as HMS Unite. She became a hospital hulk in 1836 and was broken up in 1858.
In 1788, Imperieuse cruised in the Middle East, and the Aegean Sea the two following years. She performed another cruise off the Middle East before returning to Toulon. On 11 October 1793, Impérieuse was captured off La Spezia by HMS Captain and the Spanish ship of the line Bahama following the Raid on Genoa.
The Royal Navy commissioned Imperieuse as the fifth rate frigate HMS Imperieuse.
Imperieuse entered service in 1795, and operated in the West Indies off Martinique and Surinam for most of the French Revolutionary Wars, under the command of Captain John Poo Beresford. Imperieuse returned to Britain at the Peace of Amiens.
When the Napoleonic Wars Imperieuse was renamed Unite and eturned to service in the Mediterranean. The frigate was under the command of Captain Chaloner Ogle as one of Nelson scouts, but not present at Trafalgar; instead, she lay dismasted in Lisbon harbour.
Unité, Melpomene and Weazel shared in the capture of the Buona Esperanza on 19 July 1807 and the Bizzaro, on 21 August. The bankruptcy of the prize agents meant that some prize money was not distributed until 21 years later, in 1828. The fourth and final payment for Bizzarro did not occur until July 1850.
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Wikipedia