French Frigate Sensible (1787)

''Sensible'' was a 32-gun ''Magicienne''-class frigate of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1798 off Malta and took into service as HMS ''Sensible''. She was lost in a grounding off Ceylon in 1802.

French Navy service

From November 1789, she served at Martinique under ''captaine de vaisseau'' Durand de Braye (or Durand d'Ubraye). In September 1790, she ferried Joséphine de Beauharnais and her daughter Hortense from Martinique to Toulon.

In 1792, she took part in operations against Sardinia. In 1793, she was equipped as a bomb ship.

On 9 December 1795, ''Sensible'' was part of Gantaume's squadron. ''Sensible'', along with the corvettes '' Sardine'' and ''Rossignol'', captured the 28-gun in the neutral port of Smyrna. The French warships entered the harbour in disregard of its neutrality and forced ''Nemesis'' to surrender. Murray Maxwell (then a midshipman) was taken prisoner on this occasion.

Under ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' (later ''capitaine de frégate'') Escoffier, in March–April 1795 ''Sensible'' crossed the Aegean Sea, stopping at Tunis and Valletta on her way to Toulon. The next year she came under the command of ''capitaine de frégate'' Guillaume-François-Joseph Bourdé. He sailed ''Sensible'' from Toulon to Trieste via Corfu. She then cruised the Adriatic before returning to Corfu.

''Sensible'' was subsequently armed en flûte and used as a transport in the Mediterranean. In an action on 27 June 1798, the 38-gun HMS ''Seahorse'' captured her. ''Sensible'' lost 25 men killed and 55 wounded. ''Seahorse'' had two men killed and 16 men wounded; the British report is that ''Sensible'' lost 18 men killed and 35 wounded, including Bourdé. Captain Edward James Foote of ''Seahorse'' further reported that ''Sensible'' had recently received copper sheathing and fastening, and a thorough repair at Toulon two months previously. At the time of her capture ''Sensible'' was carrying General of Division Baraguey D'Hilliers, with his entourage. They were going to Toulon with a report on the capture of Malta.

The British took her into service as HMS ''Sensible''. The French Navy suspended Captain Bourdé on 31 July on suspicion of not having resisted adequately, and court-martialed him on 20 May 1799 for the loss of his ship. Acquitted, he was reinstated on 21 August.

Royal Navy service

''Sensible'' was placed under Commander John Baker Hay, who received his promotion to post captain in September. She was named and registered on 13 October. She arrived at Portsmouth on 25 November. There she was fitted as a troopship between June and August 1799. She was commissioned in July under Captain Robert Sauce. ''Sensible'' shared with and in the proceeds of the recapture, on 11 July 1800, of the ''Piersons''.

On 14 May 1801, ''Sensible'' landed troops in Abu Qir Bay. Because ''Sensible'' served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.

Loss

On 2 March 1802, as she sailed off Ceylon, she grounded, having been unable to turn quickly enough once breakers were sighted. She had to be abandoned as a wreck after 16 hours of efforts to lighten her. She had run into a shoal off Mullaitivu due to negligent navigation. (Earlier had warned Sauce that his reckoning was off by 40 miles.) The subsequent court martial severely reprimanded Sauce and moved his name to the bottom of the list of commanders. The court martial also dismissed the service the master, James O'Conner.

Citations

References

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* Fonds Marine. Campagnes (opérations ; divisions et stations navales ; missions diverses). Inventaire de la sous-série Marine BB4. Tome premier : BB4 1 à 209 (1790-1804

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Prise de la frégate française La Sensible par la frégate anglaise HMS Seahorse, le 28 juin 1798.
''Trois Ponts'', Nicolas MIOQUE

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sensible (1787)
Magicienne-class frigates
Shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean
1787 ships
Age of Sail frigates of France
Frigates of the Royal Navy
Ships built in France
Maritime incidents in 1802
Captured ships