HMS Vincejo (1799)

History
Spain
Name:	Vencejo
Builder:	Port Mahon (probably)
Launched:	c.1797
Captured:	19 March 1799
UK
Name:	HMS Vincejo
Acquired:	19 March 1799 by capture
Nickname(s):	Vincey Joe
Captured:	8 May 1804
France
Name:	Victorine
Acquired:	8 May 1804 by capture
Fate:	sold 1805
France
Name:	Comte de Regnaud (or Comte de Reginaud)
Acquired:	By purchase circa or post January 1805
Captured:	30 November 1811
General characteristics
Displacement:	290 tons
Tons burthen:	276  50⁄94 bm
Length:	91 ft 5 1⁄2 in (27.9 m) (overall) 82 ft 1 in (25.0 m) (keel)
Beam:	25 ft 2 in (7.7 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft 8 in (3.9 m)
Sail plan:	Brig
Complement:	Spanish service: 144 men British service:95 men
Armament:	Spanish service: Gundeck: 18 x 6-pounder guns (gun deck) QD:6 x brass 4-pounder guns Fc:2 x brass 4-guns British service: 16 x 18-pounder carronades + 2 x 6-pounder bow chasers French service: 10 x 18-pounder carronades + 4 x 9-pounder guns

HMS Vincejo (or Vencejo or Vencego, or informally as Vincey Joe), was the Spanish naval brig Vencejo, which was built c.1797, probably at Port Mahon, and that the British captured in 1799. The Royal Navy took her into service and she served in the Mediterranean where she captured a privateer and a French naval brig during the French Revolutionary Wars. After the start of the Napoleonic Wars, the French captured Vencejo in Quiberon Bay in 1804. The French Navy took her into service as Victorine, but then sold her in January 1805. She then served as the French privateer Comte de Regnaud until the British recaptured her in 1810. The Royal Navy did not take her back into service.

The Spanish built Vencejo as a quarterdecked and forecastled brig, possibly around 1797, and probably in Port Mahon. Cormorant captured her on 19 March. Cormorant was in the Mediterranean proceeding to a rendezvous with Centaur when she sighted a brig. After a chase of four hours, Cormorant Vincejo. Vincejo was armed with eighteen 6-pounder guns on her gun deck, six brass 4-pounders on her quarterdeck, and two on her forecastle. She also had a crew of 144 men. during the chase Vincejo threw six of her 6-pounder guns overboard.

Commander George Long commissioned Vincejo in November. However, she had long since already started to serve with the Royal Navy.

In the action of 18 June 1799, a French frigate squadron under Rear-admiral Perrée, which had escaped Alexandria on 17 March and was now returning to Toulon from Syria, met a 30-ship British fleet under Lord Keith. Three ships of the line and two frigates detached from the British squadron, and a 28-hour running battle ensued. When the British ships overhauled them, the French frigates Junon, Courageuse, and Alceste, and the brigs Salamine and Alerte had no choice but to surrender, given their opponents' overwhelming strength. Vincejo was part of Kieth's fleet and shared in the prize money. A few days later, on 25 June, Vincejo sailed close enough to shore near Genoa that shore batteries fired on her; they ceased firing when she hoisted Spanish colours.

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Wikipedia