The Bayonnaise was a 24-gun corvette of the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

, formerly built in 1793 and operated as a privateer

Privateer

A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...

 before being taken into the French Navy in March 1794. She became famous for her fight against HMS Ambuscade

HMS Ambuscade (1773)

HMS Ambuscade was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, built at Depford in 1773.During the Revolutionary wars, as she blockaded Rochefort, she was captured in the Action of 14 December 1798 and brought in French service as Embuscade....

 on 14 December 1798.

Her hull was coppered in 1795 in Brest.

In late 1798, under lieutenant de vaisseau Jean-Baptiste-Edmond Richer, she was used to ferry 120 prisoners from Rochefort to French Guyana. She ferried troops and despatches from Cayenne to Guadeloupe, and headed back for France.

She became famous for the Action of 14 December 1798

Action of 14 December 1798

The Action of 14 December 1798 was a naval skirmish between the 32-gun British frigate, HMS Ambuscade, and the French 24-gun corvette Bayonnaise...

, in which she captured the much stronger 32-gun HMS Ambuscade

HMS Ambuscade (1773)

HMS Ambuscade was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, built at Depford in 1773.During the Revolutionary wars, as she blockaded Rochefort, she was captured in the Action of 14 December 1798 and brought in French service as Embuscade....

 off the Gironde

Gironde

For the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.Gironde is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France.-History:...

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She fought in other skirmished until 28 November 1803, when she was beached and scuttled by fire to avoid capture by HMS Ardent

HMS Ardent (1796)

HMS Ardent was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 9 April 1796 at Northfleet. She had been designed and laid down for the Honourable East India Company, but was purchased by the Navy after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War.In 1801, Ardent took part in the...

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