|
} |} HMS ''Modeste'' was a 36-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had previously been a ship of the French Navy under the name ''Modeste''. Launched in France in 1786, she served during the first actions of the French Revolutionary Wars until being captured while in harbour at Genoa, in circumstances disputed by the French and British, and which created a diplomatic incident. Taken into British service she spent the rest of the French Revolutionary and most of the Napoleonic Wars under the white ensign. She served with distinction in the East Indies, capturing several privateers and enemy vessels, including the French corvette ''Iéna''. She also saw service in a variety of roles, as a troopship, a receiving ship, and a floating battery, until finally being broken up in 1814, as the Napoleonic Wars drew to a close. ==French service and capture== ''Modeste'' was a ''Magicienne''-class frigate built at Toulon between February 1785 and January 1787, having been launched there on 18 March 1786. In September 1793 she entered the neutral port of Genoa, where according to British reports, her captain was seized by the French Republican agent in the port, who suspected the frigate as having come from the Royalist-held Toulon on some secret mission. The British had been dissatisfied with the actions of the neutral Genoa, in allowing the ''Modeste'' and two French tartanes to 'insult' and 'molest' the frigate ''Aigle'' while she was also in Genoa. Furthermore the French were alleged to have seized a ship travelling under an assurance of safe passage from Lord Hood. The British envoy in Genoa, Francis Drake, was instructed to seek reparations from the Genoese, and to put a stop to the shipment of grain to the French Republicans.〔 (詳細はJohn Gell to Genoa with orders to capture ''Modeste'', the two tartanes and any other French ships. Drake was to secure assurances from the Genoese that they would comply with Hood's wishes, or failing that, Gell was to blockade the port.〔 Gell was also to travel to Leghorn and capture the French frigate ''Impérieuse'', and instruct the British envoy to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Lord Hervey, to demand the expulsion of the French Jacobins.〔 To back up these demands Gell had a squadron consisting of , the 74-gun ships , and the French ''Scipion'', and the smaller vessels , , HMS ''ALerte'', , , , and .〔 The squadron entered Genoa on 17 October and ''Bedford'' ranged alongside ''Modeste''. Accounts then differ as to what happened next. A later French account stated that the British ship had moored alongside, and her master had civilly requested the French ship remove a boat that was hampering the British manoeuvres. The French readily agreed, but half an hour later the British captain asked the French to hoist the white flag, saying that he did not know what the tricolour was. Offended, the French refused, whereupon the British suddenly attacked the unprepared French, and captured the frigate. One British account states that ''Bedford'' came alongside and after warning the French not to resist, captured her after a short struggle, while another stated that while the fort was saluting the arrival of Rear-Admiral Gell, the French on ''Modeste'' came up on deck and behaved with such insolent gestures and language that the British attacked them. The British reported that two Frenchmen had been killed during the fighting on the tartanes, while French sources alternately reported five dead, thirty wounded, or between 30 and 40 killed.〔 The attack outraged the Genoese, who were being threatened both by Drake and by representatives of the French republic, and created a diplomatic incident.〔 The Genoes finally bowed to French pressure and ordered the expulsion of all foreigners, with the exception of the French. The Genoese broke all diplomatic ties; in response Gell's squadron began to blockade Genoa, capturing neutral merchants bound for the city.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS Modeste (1793)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|