Revenant (French: "ghost") was a 20-gun 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...

 corvette

Corvette

A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...

 designed by Robert Surcouf

Robert Surcouf

Robert Surcouf was a famous French corsair. During his legendary career, he captured 47 ships and was renowned for his gallantry and chivalry, earning the nickname of Roi des Corsaires .- Youth :...

 for commerce raiding. She was later requisitioned for service in the French Navy, and was renamed Iéna, but was subsequently captured by and served in the Royal Navy as HMS Victor. She was recaptured by the French Navy in 1809, served for a year under her original name, and then fell into British hands again when Île de France fell in December 1810. She was not restored to service and was subsequently broken up.

Construction

Revenant was built in France in 1807. Her coppered hull allowed her to sail at up to 12 knots. She was armed with fourteen 32-pounder carronades and six 8-pounder guns.

Indian ocean cruises (1807 - 1808)

Revenant arrived at Île de France

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

 (now Mauritius) on 10 June 1807, along with several prizes taken during her journey. She cruised the Bay of Bengal from September 1807 to 31 January 1808 under Surcouf, capturing the rice ships Trafalgar, Mangles, Admiral Alpin, Susannah Hunter, Success, Fortune, New Endeavour, Colonel Macauley, William Burroughs, Oriente and Jean Labdam. Command of Revenant then passed to Joseph Potier, who led her in two cruises to capture about 20 ships, including the 34-gun Portuguese Conceçao.

French naval service

Decaen, governor of Île de France, then requisitioned Revenant for the defence of the island, renaming her Iéna. She was captained by Lieutenant Morice, with Lieutenant de vaisseau Albin Roussin

Albin Roussin

Albin Reine Roussin was a French admiral and statesman.-Republic and Empire:His father was a lawyer who was arrested during the French Revolution when Roussin was aged twelve. He left home in Dijon and travelled to Dunkerque where he enlisted as a cadet in the French Navy in December of 1793. He...

 as second officer.

Capture by the Royal Navy

Iéna set sail to cruise the Persian Gulf and Bay of Bengal. On 8 October 1808, off the Sandheads of Bengal river, she was chased by the 44-gun HMS Modeste

HMS Modeste (1793)

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...

, under Captain George Elliot

George Elliot (1784–1863)

Admiral Sir George Elliot, KCB , was a Royal Navy officer who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and the First Opium War....

, which caught the Iéna after 9 hours. A night battle followed at musket range; after two and a half hours, Iéna was crippled, dismasted and leaking water, and struck her colours. Iéna had no casualties, while Modeste had her master killed and a seaman wounded. She was recommissioned in the Royal Navy as the 18-gun ship sloop HMS Victor, initially under Commander Thomas Grout and subsequently under Captain Edward Stopford.

On 2 May 1809, she departed from the Sandheads of Bengal river with a convoy of five Indiamen and several smaller vessels. On 24 May a storm split the convoy and Victor, the small ships and two of the Indiamen continued without Streatham, Europe and Lord Keith. Streatham and Europe were captured on 31 May

Action of 31 May 1809

The Action of 31 May 1809 was a naval skirmish in the Bay of Bengal during the Napoleonic Wars. During the action, an Honourable East India Company convoy carrying goods worth over £500,000 was attacked and partially captured by the French frigate Caroline...

.

Recapture by the French Navy

On 2 November 1809, the 44-gun frigate Bellone

French frigate Bellone (1807)

The Bellone was an 44-gun frigate of the French Navy.She departed Saint-Malo on 18 January 1809, bound for the Indian Ocean, under Guy-Victor Duperré....

 under Guy-Victor Duperré

Guy-Victor Duperré

Guy-Victor Duperré was a French admiral, Peer of France and thrice Naval Minister....

 captured Victor. She resumed her original name of Revenant and was taken to Île de France, where the French squadron encountered a British frigate squadron attempting to seize the island. In the ensuing Battle of Grand Port

Battle of Grand Port

The Battle of Grand Port was a naval battle between squadrons of frigates from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy. The battle was fought during 20–27 August 1810 over possession of the harbour of Grand Port on Île de France during the Napoleonic Wars...

, Revenant was used as a support ship, behind the French line of battle, as her armament was weaker than that of the more powerful frigates.

On 17-18 September 1810, along with Vénus

French frigate Vénus (1808)

The Vénus was a Junon class frigate of the French Navy.On 10 November 1808, she departed Cherbourg, bound for Île de France, where she served as Hamelin's flagship, leading a squadron also comprising the frigate Manche and the sloop Créole....

, she captured the 40-gun HMS Ceylon

HMS Bombay (1805)

HCS Bombay, later HMS Bombay and HMS Ceylon, was a 672 ton fifth rate, 38-gun wooden warship built in the Bombay Dockyard for the Honourable East India Company and launched in 1793. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1805 and renamed her HMS Bombay. She served with the Royal Navy under that name...

. Vénus and Ceylon were damaged in the battle, and the next day were captured by a British squadron composed of HMS Boadicea

HMS Boadicea (1797)

HMS Boadicea was a frigate of the Royal Navy. She served in the Channel and in the East Indies during which service she captured many prizes. She participated in one action for which the Admiralty would award the Naval General Service Medal...

, HMS Otter

HMS Otter (1805)

HMS Otter was a Royal Navy 16-gun Merlin-class ship sloop, launched in 1805 at Hull. She participated in two notable actions in the Indian Ocean and was sold in 1828.-Armament:...

 and the brig HMS Staunch

HMS Staunch (1804)

HMS Staunch was a Royal Navy 14-gun , built by Benjamin Tanner and launched in 1804 at Dartmouth, Devon. She served in the Indian Ocean and participated in the Action of 18 September 1810 before she foundered with the loss of all hands in 1811.-Service:...

. Revenant managed to escape.

Fate

Revenant was again taken by the British when the island fell on 3 December 1810, but not restored to service again. She was subsequently broken up.

External links

• HMS Victor, Naval database Robert Surcouf