French Frigate Résistance (1795)

''Résistance'' was a 48-gun of the French Navy. captured her in 1797 and the Royal Navy took her into service as HMS ''Fisgard''. She was sold in 1814.

French career

The French Navy ordered her on 8 March 1793 as ''Fidélité'', but she was renamed ''Résistance'' while still on the stocks. In 1797 she served as a troop ship, ferrying the Légion Noire to Cardigan Bay during the Battle of Fishguard. On 9 March 1797, and , captured her, along with .

British career

The Royal Navy took ''Résistance'' into service as the first HMS ''Fisgard'', naming her after the town of Fishguard because of her role in the battle. On 20 October 1798 she captured .

On 3 April 1800, ''Fisgard'' recaptured the United States letter of marque ''Minerva'', which the French privateer ''Minerve'' had captured on 31 March.

Between the 20th of July and 2 August 1800, Captain T.B. Martin and ''Fisgard'' captured four vessels:

*''St. John Baptiste'', a Spanish lugger, that she burnt:
* a French privateer of 16 guns and 141 men. ''Gironde'' had been a particularly successful and active vessel. She had on board 53 English prisoners, the masters and crews of four vessels that she had captured;
*''Alerte'', a French privateer of 14 guns and 84 men. She was only six days out of Bordeaux and had been sent out to intercept the homeward bound West India convoy; and
* ''Joseph'', an English South Seas whaler that had been a prize to the French privateer ''Minerve''.

The three unburnt vessels arrived at Plymouth on 14 August. The four vessels ''Gironde'' had captured were:

*''Swan'' sloop, Andrew Miller, master, from Oporto and carrying wine;
*''Countess of Lauderdale'', Thomas Bennett, master, from Demerary, carrying sugar and cotton;
*''Active'' brig, Benjamin Tucker, master, from Bermuda, carrying sugar and cotton; and
* ''Young William'', Charles Bacon, master, returning from the South Sea's with a cargo of (whale) oil.

On 30 September ''Fisgard'' captured the Spanish naval brig , of fourteen 18-pounder carronades and with a crew of 100 men. She was two days out of Ferrol and carrying dispatches and orders to America. She threw the dispatches, etc., overboard during the chase.

On 15 May 1801 ''Fisgard'', and the hired armed cutters ''Hirondelle'' and ''Earl Spencer'', recaptured the brig ''Victory'' from the French. Then on 7 July ''Fisgard'' was at Plymouth when the gun-vessel ran aground under the Royal Citadel, Plymouth. ''Fisgard'' sent her boats to assist and the crew and some of the stores were saved, but the vessel herself was a wreck.

In December 1804 ''Fisgard'' was at when she captured the French letter of marque ''Tigre''. ''Tigre'' was pierced for 16 guns and had 14 mounted: twelve 18-pounder carronades and two brass 4-pounder guns; she also had six 4-pounders in her hold. She had a crew of 40 men, and was ballasted with mahogany and die wood. She was 45 days into her voyage from Cayenne to Cadiz and on her way she had captured an English brig that had been sailing from London to Saint Michaels; the brig's master and crew were aboard ''Tigre''. ''Tigre'' was the former , of Liverpool. (''Angola'' was a slave ship that had made four voyages carrying slaves from West Africa to the West Indies. The French had captured her in 1804 on her fifth voyage.)

On 17 November 1805 ''Fisgard'' collided with off Madeira, severely damaging her. ''Ceres'' was declared a total loss on her arrival at Barbados from London.

On 18 August 1806 ''Fisgard''s boats went into Samaná Bay and there recaptured a British vessel that a French privateer of four guns and 100 men had captured on 7 August off Salt Island. The British vessel was ''Three Brothers'', White, master, which had been sailing from Bermuda to St Thomas's and Honduras.

Fate

The Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Royal Navy offered "Fisgard, of 38 guns and 1182 tons", lying at Portsmouth, for sale on 11 August 1814. The buyer had to post a bond of £3,000, with two guarantors, that the buyers would break up the vessel within a year of purchase.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Resistance (1796)
1795 ships
Age of Sail frigates of France
Vengeance-class frigates
Captured ships
Ships built in France
Maritime incidents in 1797
Frigates of the Royal Navy
Maritime incidents in 1805