|
''Topaze'' was a ''Gloire'' class 44-gun frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1809 and she the served with the Royal Navy under the name ''Alcmene'' until she was broken up in 1816. ==French service== She was built in Nantes in 1803 on plans by Pierre Forfait and launched on 1 March 1805. She was put into service in September.〔Winfield and Roberts (2015), p.146.〕 She departed from Nantes in June 1805 for Fort-de-France to carry new instructions to Admiral Villeneuve, but failed to reach him as the fleet was already heading for Europe. On 19 July she was the lead vessel of a squadron of four vessels that captured . The other three were the 22-gun corvette ''Départment des Landes'', the 18-gun ''Torche'', and the 16-gun brig-corvette ''Faune''.〔Walters (1949), p.35-6.〕 On 14 August, a British squadron comprising the 74-gun , and HMS ''Raisonnable'' captured ''Faune'', which was trailing. Two days later, the British caught up with the three remaining ships, and Baudin had to abandon ''Torche'', which surrendered after a token resistance against ''Goliath''.〔Troude (1867), pp.427.〕 ''Raissonable'' chased ''Topaze'', which she engaged in the morning of 17. The two ships were becalmed at first and unable to manoeuver, until ''Topaze'' caught some breeze. Baudin prepared to board ''Raisonnable'', but abandoned the project after considering that his frigate was ferrying the crew of ''Blanche''; he later told Captain Mudge to testify that ''Raisonnable'' would have been taken, had it not been for Mudge's presence on ''Topaze''.〔 On 13 January 1803, ''Topaze'', Pierre-Nicolas Lahalle, approached Cayenne. She was carrying flour and was under orders to avoid combat. At the time, the sloop HMS ''Confiance'' was at Cayenne, supporting the Portuguese conquest of French Guiana. However, three-quarters of her crew, as well as her captain, James Lucas Yeo, were ashore, attacking the French defenders.Midshipman G. Yeo, Yeo's younger brother, another midshipman, the remaining 25 men of the crew, and 20 local Negroes that the two midshipmen induced to join them, set sail towards ''Topaze''. ''Topaze'', judging from the sloop's boldness that she had company that would be forthcoming, turned away.〔Long (1895), pp.149-50.〕 A little over a week later, ''Topaze'' met HMS ''Cleopatra'', which captured ''Topaze'' in the subsequent action of 22 January 1809.〔Norton Shaw, Hume Greenfield, Henry Walter Bates. (1851). ( The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. Volume 20. (p. xxxv) ).〕 The British took her into the Royal Navy as HMS ''Jewel''. 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「French frigate Topaze (1805)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|