Bonne Citoyenne was a 20-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...

, which 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...

 captured and recommissioned as the sloop-of-war

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

 HMS Bonne Citoyenne. Her most famous action was her capture of the French frigate Furieuse on 6 July 1809 for which her crew would earn the Naval General Service Medal. Her lines were used as the basis for the Hermes-class post ships

Hermes class post ship

The Hermes-class sailing sixth rates were a series of four 20-gun post ships built to an 1810 design based on the ex-French prize Bonne Citoyenne, which the British captured in 1796, and which served in the Royal Navy to the end of the Napoleonic War....

. She was sold in 1819.

French service and capture

Bonne Citoyenne was built and launched in 1794, put into service in 1795 and served in the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

 and the Bay of Biscay

Bay of Biscay

The Bay of Biscay is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal, and is named in English after the province of Biscay, in the Spanish...

.

On 4 March she left Rochfort under the command of Capitaine de Vaisseau Mahé-La-Bourdonnais. She was in the company of the French frigates Forte, Seine, and Regenerée

French frigate Régénérée (1794)

Régénérée was a 40-gun Cocarde class frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1801 at the fall of Alexandria but never commissioned her...

, and the brig Mutine

HMS Mutine (1797)

HMS Mutine was a French 16-gun corvette launched in 1794 at Honfleur.The Royal Navy captured her from the French in May 1797 at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Mutine was sold in 1803.-French service:...

. They were sailing for the 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...

 with troops and Bonne Citoyenne also had a great deal of soldiers' clothing on board.Within the next three or four years the British would capture each one of these four vessels.

Bonne Citoyenn had the misfortune to be damaged in a storm and to become separated from the rest of the French squadron. On 10 March she had the further misfortune to encounter the fifth-rate

Fifth-rate

In Britain's Royal Navy during the classic age of fighting sail, a fifth rate was the penultimate class of warships in a hierarchal system of six "ratings" based on size and firepower.-Rating:...

 frigate

Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

 , under the command of Robert Stopford, and his squadron. The squadron captured her 58 leagues

League (unit)

A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...

 off Cape Finisterre

Cape Finisterre

right|thumb|300px|Position of Cape Finisterre on the [[Iberian Peninsula]]Cape Finisterre is a rock-bound peninsula on the west coast of Galicia, Spain....

.

Stopford then took her back to England as his prize. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Bonne Citoyenne.

Mediterranean

Bonne Citoyennes first captain was Commander Sir Charles Lindsay, who took command in June 1796. On 22 September she captured the Jonge George. Ten days later, she captured the Jussrouw Van Altona.

Lindsay sailed for the Mediterranean in January 1797 where she joined a squadron under Lord Viscount Garlies

George Stewart, 8th Earl of Galloway

Admiral George Stewart, 8th Earl of Galloway KT , styled Lord Garlies between 1773 and 1806, was a British naval commander and politician.-Background:...

, off Cadiz. The squadron also included , , , and . That month they captured the Spanish merchant vessels Santa Natalia and Caridad (alias Cubana).

Bonne Citoyenne was in company with the other vessels of Garlies' squadron when they captured the Spanish brigs San Juan Baptista on 6 February and the Virgine de Monserrate three days later. At about the same time they also captured the Spanish ship San Francisco, which they sent into Lisbon.

Bonne Citoyenne was at the Battle of Cape St Vincent on 14 February, when she signaled Admiral John Jervis that she had sighted the French fleet. Bonne Citoyenne shared in the prize money arising from the battle. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "St. Vincent" to all surviving claimants from the battle.

The British anchored in Lagos Bay with their prizes. Jervis then sent a squadron, that included Bonne Citoyenne, under Captain Velters Cornwall Berkeley in to find the 130-gun Santissima Trinidad. Six days later they did, only for Berkeley to break of the chase and lose her, for reasons that have never been explained. came up and found Santissima Trinidad, firing several broadsides into her before she broke off the engagement. As Santissima Trinidad was much larger and more heavily armed than Terpsichore it is not clear what Bowen actually expected to accomplish. At some point, Bonne Citoyenne, Emerald and shared in the proceeds of the capture of the Spanish ship Concordia.

In March Captain Lord Mark Kerr took command, only to be replaced in May by Commander Richard Retalick. Bonne Citoyenne then had a productive summer capturing two privateers and numerous other vessels:

• Pleuvier, a French privateer, of nine guns and 43 crew men. Bonne Citoyenne captured her between Carthaginia and Oran. Pleuvier was eight days out of Carthagina but had taken nothing. Bonne Citoyenne sent her to Algiers.
• Canarde, a French privateer of 16 guns and 64 crew men. She was three months out of Marseilles and had captured one Prussian and one Russian vessel, as well as one vessel under the Turkish flag. Bonne Citoyenne sent her into Malta.
• Two Spanish brigs sailing in ballast, from Catalonia to Trieste, but carrying 8,900 dollars.
• a Spanish tartan, Jengin (or Virgine) del Rosario, which was sailing from Barcelona to Minorca with 20 recruits. Retalick reported that "the Wind being to the Southward, and scarce of Water, sent all the Prisoners on Board of her."
• eight other Spanish merchantmen of small value.

Commander Josiah Nisbet replaced Retalick in May 1798. On 28 October, Bonne Citoyenne and captured two vessels off Capo Passaro, Sicily. Both belonged to the French empire. The brig San Giovanni e San Nicolo was carrying corn. The Bologna was carrying merchandise, with both vessel and merchandise being Genoese property.

Bonne Cityonne joined Admiral Horatio Nelson's squadron and went out with it to the Mediterranean, but did not arrive at Abu Qir Bay

Abu Qir Bay

The Abū Qīr Bay is a spacious bay on the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt, lying between Abu Qir and the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. It contains a natural gas field, discovered in the 1970s.On August 1, 1798, Horatio Nelson fought the Battle of the Nile, often referred to as the "Battle of Aboukir Bay"...

 until ten days after the Battle of the Nile

Battle of the Nile

The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between British and French fleets at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt from 1–3 August 1798...

.Nisbet is variously described as Nelson's son-in-law or step-son. He was, in fact, the son of Nelson's wife, Fanny Nisbet, by her first husband. Nisbet was promoted to post captain in December.

In January 1799 Nelson ordered Bonne Citoyenne to convey the Turkish Ambassador to Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

. Nisbet returned to Palermo with dispatches from Constantinople for Nelson. She then sailed to Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 to join the fleet blockading the French garrison there, arriving in early April.

Commander Thomas Malling took over in August. His successor, in September, was Lieutenant Archibald Duff (acting), who left after the Admiralty refused to confirm the appointment. The next month Commander Robert Jackson assumed command.

Bonne Citoyenne was among the many vessels of the Malta blockade sharing in the prize money accruing from the capture on 18 February of the French warship Genereux. The first distribution of the proceeds of the hull, provisions and stores totaled ₤24,000. On 2 April the squadron captured the Guillaume Tell, with the vessels of the squadron sharing in the prize money. Similarly Bonne Citoyenne shared in the capture on 6 April of the French polacca

Polacca

A polacca is a type of seventeenth-century sailing vessel, similar to the xebec. The name is the feminine of "Polish" in the Italian language. The polacca was frequently seen in the Mediterranean...

 Vengeance, which was going into La Valletta. Next, on 27 June, vessels of the squadron captured the French privateers Redoubtable and Entreprenant. Bonne Citoyenne was also among the vessels sharing in the proceeds from the capture of the French frigate Dianne on 25 August off Malta as she and Justice attempted to escape. Although the British captured Dianne, Justice was able to slip away in the dark.

On 5 September 1800, the British took Malta after two years of blockade. Bonne Citoyenne was among the vessels and regiments that shared in the prize money. On 18 October, an Anglo-Portuguese squadron shared in the capture of the Ragusan polacca Madonna Della Gratia e San Gaetano, which was carrying plate, amongst other cargo. The British vessels were , Terpsichore, Bonne Citoyenne and , and the Portuguese vessels, Principe Reale, Reynha de Portugal, Alfonso di Albuquerque, and the corvette Benjamin. The seizure on 27 October of two Greek polaccas off Malta also led to a shared payout, this one involving more, but only British vessels. One of the polaccas was the San Nicolo, but the name of the other is unknown. Nelson order the hulls burnt before La Valetta. The seizure on 31 October of the ship Fowler involved fewer vessels.

On 31 December 1800 Jackson and the Bonne Citoyenne captured the Spanish 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...

 settee Vives about 20 leagues off Cape Mola, outside Port Mahon

Mahon

Mahón is a municipality and the capital city of the Balearic Island of Minorca , located in the eastern part of the island. Mahon has the second deepest natural harbor in the world: 5 km long and up to 900m. wide...

. Vives was armed with ten 9-pounders and had a crew of 80 men. She was ten days out of Palma and had previously captured a merchant vessel carrying wine from Port Mahon to Citadella. Jackson recaptured this ship too.

Bonne Citoyenne then returned to Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

. There she was among the vessels that shared in the capture of the Eurydice on 9 February 1801.

Next, she sailed for Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 with Lord Keith's fleet. The force attacked the French at Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

. On 9 June, Bonne Citoyenne, and the brig-sloops and captured the Bonaparte, Vierge de Nieges, Felicité and. Josephine off Alexandria. The prize money was forwarded by the British agent there. Next, Bonne Citoyenne shared in the capture of the Almas di Purgatoria, off Alexandria, on 28 July. After the Battle of Alexandria

Battle of Alexandria

The Battle of Alexandria or Battle of Canope, fought on March 21, 1801 between the French army under General Menou and the British expeditionary corps under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, took place near the ruins of Nicopolis, on the narrow spit of land between the sea and Lake Abukir, along which the...

  and the subsequent siege

Siege of Alexandria

The Siege of Alexandria was fought between 17 August and 2 September 1801, during the French Revolutionary Wars, between French and British forces and was the last action of the Egyptian Campaign. The French garrison at Alexandria surrendered on 2nd September...

, Captain Alexander Cochrane

Alexander Cochrane

Admiral Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane GCB RN was a senior Royal Navy commander during the Napoleonic Wars.-Naval career:...

 in the 74-gun third rate , with Bonne Citoyenne, , Victorieuse and Port Mahon and three Turkish corvettes, were able to enter the harbour on 21 August.

In 1850 the Admiralty awarded the Medal for Egypt to the crews of any vessel that had served in the campaign between 8 March and 2 September 1801. Bonne Cityonne is listed among the vessels whose crews qualified.

Jackson was promoted to Post Captain in April 1802; his replacement, in May, was Captain Philip Carteret.

Bonne Citoyenne was paid off in 1803. By 1805 she was moored at Chatham

Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...

, where she underwent repairs in 1808. She was recommissioned under John Thompson in May 1808, and served off the north coast of Spain. William Mounsey

William Mounsey

William Mounsey CB was a British officer of the Royal Navy. He served during the American Revolutionary, the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, rising to the rank of Captain.-Family and early life:...

 replaced Thompson on 18 April 1809. He then took despatches to Earl St Vincent

John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent

Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent GCB, PC was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom...

. While Mounsey was in command of Bonne Citoyenne, she ran down and sank a merchant vessel, the Doris. Lieutenant Symes, first lieutenant of Bonne Citoyenne was the officer of the watch and was on deck at the time. The owners of Doris sued Mounsey, but the case was dismissed on the grounds that Mounsey had not appointed Symes.

Bonne Citoyenne captures Furieuse

Bonne Citoyenne returned to England after delivering the despatches, and on 18 June sailed from Spithead

Spithead

Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds, except those from the southeast...

 in company with . The two were acting as escorts for a convoy bound for Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

. Whilst she escorted the convoy, on 2 July, lookouts spotted a suspicious sail astern, and Mounsey dropped back to investigate. In doing so he lost sight of the convoy.

As he sailed to rejoin the convoy, on 5 July he came across a French frigate that was in the process of capturing an English merchant. Despite the frigate's substantially larger size, Mounsey immediately gave chase, at which the French ship fled northwards. After a chase lasting 18 hours the Bonne Citoyenne caught up with the French ship on the morning of 6 July and brought her to battle.

The subsequent engagement lasted seven hours, with Bonne Citoyenne at a disadvantage early on, when three of her guns were dismounted. She nevertheless fired 129 broadsides to the enemy's 70. By the end of the battle Bonne Citoyenne had lost her top masts, her lower masts were badly damaged, and her rigging, sails and boats had been shot to pieces. Running out of powder Mounsey decided to force the issue and ordered his men to be prepared to board the French ship. Before he could do so, the French surrendered and Mounsey took possession.

The enemy ship was discovered to be the Furieuse, which had sailed from the Îles des Saintes

Îles des Saintes

The Îles des Saintes , also called simply Les Saintes , is a small archipelago of French Antilles located in the South of Basse-Terre Island, on the West of Marie-Galante and in the North of Dominica in the arc of Lesser Antilles...

 on 1 April, carrying sugar and coffee to France. She was capable of carrying 48 guns, but she was armed en flute, only carrying 20 at the time. Even so, the weight of her broadside was considerable as she carried twelve 42-pounder carronade

Carronade

The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and anti-crew weapon...

s, two long 24-pounder guns, and six other guns of smaller caliber. She also had a much larger crew, with 200 sailors, 40 soldiers, and a detachment of troops from the 60th Regiment of the Line. Furieuse had suffered heavy damage; she had lost her masts, had five feet of water in the hold, and her casualties numbered 35 killed and 37 wounded. By contrast, Bonne Citoyenne had lost just one man killed and five wounded. Mounsey attributed the smallness of his losses to "the Lowness of the Bonne Citoyenne's Hull, and being so close under the Enemy's Guns."

Furieuse was patched up, with a great deal of effort, to the point where Bonne Citoyenne could tow her into Halifax

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

, where both underwent repairs. The Royal Navy took into service under her existing name. Bonne Citoyenne returned to England in September.

A round of promotions followed the victory. Bonne Citoyennes first lieutenant received a promotion to commander and Mounsey one to Post captain, effective 6 July, i.e., the date of the battle. Mounsey was promised command of Furieuse once she was repaired. Captain John Simpson commissioned Furieuse in Halifax and sailed her to Britain, arriving in Portsmouth on 20 June 1810. She then underwent repairs. Mounsey then commissioned her in November 1811.

Inflexible sued in Vice-Admiralty Court in Halifax to share in the prize money from the capture. However, the Court ruled that Bonne Citoyenne was the sole captor.

The Admiralty issued Mounsey with a gold medal for the action, one of only 18 that they so honoured. In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Bonne Citoyenne Wh. Furieuse" to all surviving claimants from Bonne Cityonne.

Greene and the Americans

When Mounsey left Bonne Citoyenne in 1810, his successor was Commander Richard James O'Connor. On 21 June 1810, Bonne Citoyenne captured the French privateer
Maitre de Danse in the Channel. She was pierced for 14 guns but only mounted four, and had a crew of 30 men. O'Connor sailed Bonne Citoyenne on a convoy to Madeira on 11 July 1810.

In November Pitt Burnaby Greene took command. Greene was promoted to Post captain on 7 March 1811, after which Bonne Citoyenne was re-classed as a Post-ship. Greene sailed her to the South American Station on 12 March. Bonne Citoyenne was based at the River Plate

Río de la Plata

The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...

, and Greene was the senior officer of the station from December 1811 to September 1812 when Captain Peter Heywood

Peter Heywood

Captain Peter Heywood was a British naval officer who was aboard HMS Bounty during the mutiny of 28 April 1789. He was later captured, tried and condemned to death as a mutineer, but subsequently pardoned...

 arrived.

With the outbreak of the War of 1812

War of 1812

The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

 Greene took on a cargo of specie, worth some half a million pounds, and sailed from Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

. Unfortunately, a grounding damaged Bonne Citoyenne and he was forced to put into Salvador

Salvador, Bahia

Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...

 for repairs. Whilst she was in port, two American warships, the and arrived. James Lawrence

James Lawrence

James Lawrence was an American naval officer. During the War of 1812, he commanded the USS Chesapeake in a single-ship action against HMS Shannon...

 of the Hornet sent a challenge to Greene, offering a single ship combat, with Commodore William Bainbridge

William Bainbridge

William Bainbridge was a Commodore in the United States Navy, notable for his victory over HMS Java during the War of 1812.-Early life:...

 of Constitution pledging not to intervene in any way.

Bonne Citoyenne and Hornet were evenly matched in terms of the number of guns, weight of their broadsides, and sizes of their crews. In his reply, Greene stated that he expected that he would emerge the victor in such a contest, but that he could not expect Bainbridge and Constitution to forsake their duty to intervene should Bonne Citoyenne emerge the victor. Consequently he declined the challenge at this time and place, but stated that he stood ready to accept the opportunity should the circumstances be different.

Constitution left on 6 January 1813, but Bonne Citoyenne did not sortie even though Hornet was now apparently alone. The arrival of the third rate  on 24 January 1813 finally forced Hornet to leave. Greene sailed for Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

 on 26 January, arriving there in April. Bonne Citoyenne then returned to Jamaica, before again returning to Britain.

Fate

In August 1814 or so Captain Augustus Clifford took command of Bonne Citoyenne. She was laid up in ordinary

Reserve fleet

A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....

in January 1815. The Navy put her up for sale on 3 February 1819, and sold her on that day to Joshua Crystall for ₤1,550.

External links

• Career of HMS Bonne Citoyen at ageofnelson.org