The Sibylle was an 38-gun Hébé class

Hébé class frigate

The Hébé class was a class of six 38-gun frigates of the French Navy, designed in 1781 by Jacques-Noël Sané.* HébéThe Hébé class was a class of six 38-gun frigates of the French Navy, designed in 1781 by Jacques-Noël Sané.* Hébé...

 frigate 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...

. She was launched in 1791 at the dockyards in Toulon

Toulon

Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

 and placed in service in 1792. After the 50-gun Fourth Rate

Fourth-rate

In the British Royal Navy, a fourth rate was, during the first half of the 18th century, a ship of the line mounting from 46 up to 60 guns. While the number of guns stayed subsequently in the same range up until 1817, after 1756 the ships of 50 guns and below were considered too weak to stand in...

 HMS Romney

HMS Romney (1762)

HMS Romney was a 50-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in a career that spanned forty years....

 captured her in 1794, the British took her into service as HMS Sybille.Why the Admiralty reversed the positions of the "i" and the "y" in spelling her name is not clear, but this aberrant spelling persisted over several later Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 vessels. She served in the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 until disposed off in 1833. While in British service Sybille participated in three notable single ship actions, in each case capturing a French vessel. On anti-slavery duties off West Africa from July 1827 to June 1830, Sybille captured numerous slavers and freed some 3,500 slaves. She was finally sold in 1833 in Portsmouth.

French service

From 23 April 1790 to October-December 1792, Sibylle escorted a convoy and transferred funds from Toulon to Smyrna

Smyrna

Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...

, first under Capitaine de vaisseau (CV) Grasse-Briançon and then CV de Venel. From March 1793 to January 1794, under CV Rondeau, she escorted convoys between Toulon and Marseilles and then she moved to the Levant station. She cruised the Aegean Sea, and in June 1794 she was escorting a convoy from Candia

Heraklion

Heraklion, or Heraclion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete, Greece. It is the 4th largest city in Greece....

 to Mykonos

Mykonos

Mykonos is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. The island spans an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. There are 9,320 inhabitants most of whom live in the largest town, Mykonos, which lies on the west coast. The town is also...

 when she encountered Romney. Romney, under Capt. Paget

William Paget (MP)

Captain the Honourable William Paget , was a British naval commander and Member of Parliament.-Background:Paget was the second son of Henry Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge, and Jane, daughter of the Very Reverend Arthur Champagné...

, captured Sibylle on 17 June; she was taken in British service as HMS Sybille.In 1847 this action earned for the survivors the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "ROMNEY 17 JUNE 1794".

British service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

In 1798, she served off the Philippines. In December, she gave chase to the privateer Clarisse, under 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 :...

. Clarisse escaped by throwing eight guns overboard.
In February 1799, while under the command of Captain Edward Cooke, Sybille patrolled the Indian Ocean in a hunt for the French frigate Forte, under captain Beaulieu-Leloup. The ships met on 28 February in the Balasore

Balasore

Balasore is a strategically located city in the state of Orissa, about north of the state capital Bhubaneswar, in eastern India. It is the administrative headquarters of Balasore district. It is best known for Chandipur beach. It is also the site of the Indian Ballistic Missile Defense...

 Roads in the Bay of Bengal. Sybille took Forte by surprise and captured her, as Fortes captain mistook Sybille for a merchantman. Cooke was wounded in the action and died at Calcutta 23 May, aged 26. Though his grave is in Calcutta, the East India Company

East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

 erected a monument to him in Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...

 in appreciation of the benefit to British trade of his capture of Forte. In all, Sybille lost five dead and 17 wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Sybille 28 Feby. 1799" to all remaining survivors of the action.

In June 1799, Sybille came under the command of Captain Charles Adam. On 23 August 1800, Sybille, with Daedalus

HMS Daedalus (1780)

HMS Daedalus was a 32-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1780 from the yards of John Fisher, of Liverpool. She went on to serve in the American War of Independence, as well as the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars....

, Centurion

HMS Centurion (1774)

HMS Centurion was a 50-gun Salisbury-class fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, and during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars....

 and Braave captured a Dutch brig. The Royal Navy took her into service as Admiral Rainier. The British ships had entered Batavia Roads and captured five Dutch armed vessels in all and destroyed 22 other vessels. Sybille alone apparently captured one brig of six guns, four proa

Proa

A proa, also seen as prau, perahu, and prahu, is a type of multihull sailing vessel.While the word perahu and proa are generic terms meaning boat their native language, proa in Western languages has come to describe a vessel consisting of two unequal length parallel hulls...

s armed with swivels, four proas armed, between with three 8-pounder and three 4-pounder guns, and some 21 unarmed proas, of which five were lost. How many of these, if any, are among the vessels reported as being taken in the Batavia Roads is not clear.

On 19–20 August 1801, in the Roads of Mahé, Seychelles

Mahé, Seychelles

Mahé is the largest island of the Seychelles, lying in the north east of the nation. The population of Mahé is 80,000. It contains the capital city of Victoria and accommodates 90% of the country's total population...

, Sybille captured the French frigate Chiffonne

French frigate Chiffone (1800)

The Chiffonne was a 38-gun Heureuse class frigate of the French Navy. She was built at Nantes and launched in 1799. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1801. In 1809 she participated in a campaign against pirates in the Persian Gulf...

, under the command of Capitaine de Vaisseau Guieyesse. Chiffone had captured the Portuguese corvette Andorinha off the coasts of Brazil on 5 May, and the East Indiaman Bellona in the Madagascar Channel on 16 June. (Later, from 23 May 1803 to 1805, Charles Adams would command Chiffonne.)

On 3 May 1807, under Capt. Robert Winthrop, Sybille captured the French 4-gun privateer Oiseau in the Channel.

Sybille, under the command of Capt. Clotworthy Upton, participated in Battle of Copenhagen (1807)

Battle of Copenhagen (1807)

The Second Battle of Copenhagen was a British preemptive attack on Copenhagen, targeting the civilian population in order to seize the Dano-Norwegian fleet and in turn originate the term to Copenhagenize.-Background:Despite the defeat and loss of many ships in the first Battle of Copenhagen in...

, where she bombarded the city. The battle resulted in the British capturing the Danish Fleet.

On 25 January 1808, while on the Home station, Sibylle captured the French privateer lugger Grand Argus. Grand Argus was pierced for 12 guns but carried only four. She and her crew of 41 men were under the command of Michael Daguinet. She was on her first cruise from Granville but had made no captures in three days she had been out.

Then on 16 August, Sybille captured the French brig-corvette Espiègle, later recommissioned in the Royal Navy as Electra

HMS Electra (1808)

HMS Electra was a 16-gun brig-sloop. She was built by the Enterprise Ethéart at as the French Curieux class brig Espiègle and launched in 1804. She was armed in 1807 at Saint Servan....

. Espiègle arrived in Cork

Cork Harbour

Cork Harbour is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of "second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area" . Other contenders include Halifax Harbour in Canada, and Poole Harbour...

 on the evening of 31 August.

In the summer of 1809 Sybille cruised off the Greenland ice. Her role was to protect the whalers from privateers and then to escort them back to Britain.

In subsequent years she captured several privateers. In October 1810 she captured the French privateer Edouard on the coast of Ireland. Edouard, under Guillaume Moreau, was armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 90 men. She was eight days out of Abrevarake.

On 28 January 1812 Sybille was in company with Surveillante

French frigate Surveillante (1802)

The Surveillante entered service as a 40-gun Virginie class frigate of the French Navy. She was surrendered to the British in 1803, after which she served in the Royal Navy, classed under the British system as a 38 gun vessel, until 1814 when she was decommissioned...

 and Spitfire

HMS Spitfire (1782)

HMS Spitfire was a Tisiphone-class fireship of the Royal Navy. She served during the years of peace following the end of the American War of Independence, and by the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, had been reclassified as a 14-gun sloop-of-war...

, when Surveillante captured the American ship Zone. In 10 May Sybille captured the French 14-gun privateer Aigle at sea. On 2 August she detained and sent into Cork

Cork Harbour

Cork Harbour is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of "second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area" . Other contenders include Halifax Harbour in Canada, and Poole Harbour...

 the Perseverance of New York. Lastly, on 5 February 1813 Sybille captured the French 14-gun privateer Brestois at sea.

Post-war service

Captain Sir John Pechell took command of Sybille on 1 July 1823 and fitted her out for service in the Mediterranean. She sailed in October and proceeded to spend three years protecting the Ionian Islands and suppressing piracy.

A year later, Sybille enforced an indemnity on the Greek government of the United States of the Ionian Islands

United States of the Ionian Islands

The United States of the Ionian Islands was a state and amical protectorate of the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1864. It was the successor state of the Septinsular Republic...

 for an attack on a Turkish vessel in violation of their own neutrality. Pechell seized a number of Greek ships until the indemnity of 40,000 dollars was forthcoming. On 5 October 1824, her boats succeeded in cutting out three Greek schooners: Polyxenes of 8 guns and 69 men; San Niccolo of 10 guns and 73 men; and Bella Poula of 8 guns and 37 men. Sybille took the prizes to Zante and the prisoners to Corfu

Corfu

Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...

.

In October 1825, boats from Sybille and Medina, Captain Timothy Curtis, found a Greek pirate mistico and her prize at anchor in a cove at Catacolo. The British handed the Ionian prize over to the authorities in Zante and sent the mistico to Corfu.

Sybilles next notable action occurred when she attacked a pirate lair on a barren island near Candia

Heraklion

Heraklion, or Heraclion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete, Greece. It is the 4th largest city in Greece....

 at the end of June 1826. Sybille sent in her boats but they were unsuccessful, suffering some 13 dead and 31 wounded, five of whom died subsequently. Gunfire from Sybille killed many pirates until the pirates traded a Royal Marine they had captured from one of the boats for a cease-fire. Sybille left the island though some time later a Turkish brig chased the pirates' remaining boat ashore in Anatolia thus ending that threat.

Suppressing the slave trade

From 4 December 1826 until 1830, Sybille was part of the West Africa Squadron

West Africa Squadron

The Royal Navy established the West Africa Squadron at substantial expense in 1808 after Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807. The squadron's task was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa...

, which sought to suppress the slave trade. There she was under the command of Commodore Francis Augustus Collier.

On 6 September 1827, Sybille captured the Brazilian ship Henriqueta (also Henri Quatre), with 569 slaves on board, of whom 546 survived to be liberated in Sierra Leone. In December the Admiralty purchased Henriquetta for £900 as a tender to Sybille and renamed her Black Joke

HMS Black Joke (1827)

The third HMS Black Joke was probably built in Baltimore in 1824, becoming the Brazilian slave ship Henriquetta. The Royal Navy captured her in September 1827 and purchased her into the service. The West Africa Squadron employed her to chase down slave ships. Over the course of a five-year career...

. Black Joke would go on to be one of the most successful anti-slavery vessels in the squadron.

On 14 March 1828 Sybille was reported to have captured three slave vessels: possibly a Dutch schooner with 272 slaves; a Spanish schooner with 282 slaves; and the Hope, former tender to the Maidstone, with a cargo onboard for the purchase of slaves. When Sybille arrived at Sierra Leone on 17 May for refitting in preparation for a passage to Ascension Island

Ascension Island

Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island in the equatorial waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, around from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America, which is roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa...

, she reported that since she arrived on the station in July 1827 she had freed over 1100 slaves.

In 1829, 204 men died on board Eden from yellow fever. To convince the crew of Sybille that the fever was not contagious, her surgeon, Robert McKinnal, drank a glassful of black vomit from an ailing crew member.

Between February and March 1829 Sybille captured a Brazilian brig, and her tenders captured the slave schooner Donna Barbara. By 11 April 1829, Sybille claimed to have released over 3,900 slaves in the previous 22 months. On 29 April she captured a Spanish schooner with 291 slaves on board. Then on 12 May she sent in to the prize court a schooner with 185 slaves on board.

Sybille also seized and condemned a number of vessels for illicitly trafficking in slaves. On 11 October it was the brigantine Tentadora and on 1 November the brigantine Nossa Senhora da Guia, with 310 slaves, of whom 238 survived. On 30 January 1830 Sybille seized and condemned a third, unnamed vessel. Then on 15 January she took the Umbelino, 377 slaves of whom only 163 survived, and eight days later, the Primera Rosalia, with 282 slaves, of whom 242 survived. She also captured a brigantine from Lagos after a 27 hour chase; the vessel turned out to have 282 slaves on board. Her last capture occurred on 1 April when she captured Manzanares. Sybille finally returned to Portsmouth from the coast of Africa on
26 June and was paid off.

Fate

Between January 1830 and July 1831 she was fitted as a lazaretto

Lazaretto

A lazaretto or lazaret is a quarantine station for maritime travellers. Lazarets can be ships permanently at anchor, isolated islands, or mainland buildings. Until 1908, lazarets were also used for disinfecting postal items, usually by fumigation...

for Dundee. She was eventually sold to Mr. Henry for ₤2,460 on 7 August 1833.