HMS Blanche (1800)
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HMS ''Blanche'' was a 36-gun
fifth-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower. Rating The rating system in the Royal N ...
''Apollo''-class
frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...
of the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
. She was commissioned in 1800 by
Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
Graham Hamond, under whom on 2 April 1801 ''Blanche'' fought as part of the frigate reserve at the Battle of Copenhagen. She spent the remainder of the
French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...
serving in the
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. When the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
began in 1803 ''Blanche'' was sent to serve in the
West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
under the command of Captain Zachary Mudge. There the frigate participated in the
Blockade of Saint-Domingue The blockade of Saint-Domingue was a naval campaign fought during the first months of the Napoleonic Wars in which a series of British Royal Navy squadrons blockaded the French-held ports of Cap-Français and Môle-Saint-Nicolas on the norther ...
and an unsuccessful invasion of Curacao, capturing upwards of twenty-four vessels. ''Blanche'' was sailing off
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on 19 July 1805 when she was attacked by a French squadron of four ships, led by Captain François-André Baudin in the 40-gun frigate ''Le Topaze''. After a battle lasting forty-five minutes Mudge surrendered ''Blanche'', having had eight men killed. The frigate was beginning to sink, and the French chose to destroy her, setting the ship on fire. Two of the four French warships were captured a month later, while Mudge was released after ''Topaze'' reached Portugal. ''Blanche''s loss is controversial; while
Rear-Admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...
John Sutton praised Mudge and his crew for their defence of the outnumbered ship, historians such as
William James William James (January 11, 1842 â€“ August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...
have criticised the British performance as lacklustre and undistinguished.


Design

''Blanche'' was a 36-gun,
18-pounder The Ordnance QF 18-pounder,British military traditionally denoted smaller ordnance by the weight of its standard projectile, in this case approximately or simply 18-pounder gun, was the standard British Empire field gun of the First World War ...
''Apollo''-class
frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...
. Frigates were three-masted,
full-rigged ship A full-rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing ship, sailing vessel with a sail plan of three or more mast (sailing), masts, all of them square rig, square-rigged. Such a vessel is said to have a ship rig or be ship-rigged, with each mas ...
s that carried their
main battery A main battery is the primary weapon or group of weapons around which a warship is designed. As such, a main battery was historically a naval gun or group of guns used in volleys, as in the broadsides of cannon on a ship of the line. Later, th ...
on a single, continuous
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. They were smaller and faster than
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and primarily intended for raiding, reconnaissance and messaging. Designed by
Surveyor of the Navy The Surveyor of the Navy, originally known as Surveyor and Rigger of the Navy, held overall responsibility for the design of British warships from 1745. He was a principal commissioner and member of the Navy Board from the inauguration of tha ...
Sir William Rule, the ''Apollo'' class originated as three ships constructed between 1798 and 1803. The class formed part of the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
's response to the
French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...
and need for more warships to serve in it. The original ''Apollo'' design would be revived at the start of the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
in 1803, with twenty-four ships ordered to it over the next nine years. The ''Apollo'' class was chosen to fulfil the role of a standardised frigate type because of how well the lone surviving ship of the first batch, HMS ''Euryalus'', had performed, providing "all-round excellence" according to the naval historian Robert Gardiner. Trials of ships of the class showed that they were all capable of reaching around and were very well balanced, although prone to pitching deeply in heavy seas. They also had a high storage capacity, allowing for upwards of six months' provisions.


Construction

''Blanche'' was the second of the three ships in the first ''Apollo'' batch, ordered on 18 January 1799. Alongside the name-ship of the class, HMS ''Apollo'', her construction was contracted to John Dudman at
Deptford Dockyard Deptford Dockyard was an important Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and man ...
. ''Blanche'' was laid down in February 1800, and launched on 2 October with the following dimensions: along the
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, at the
keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...
, with a beam of and a depth in the hold of . The ship had a draught of forward and aft, and measured 950
tons burthen Builder's Old Measurement (BOM, bm, OM, and o.m.) is the method used in England from approximately 1650 to 1849 for calculating the cargo capacity of a ship. It is a volumetric measurement of cubic capacity. It estimated the tonnage of a ship b ...
. She was named after ''Blanche'', a French 36-gun frigate captured by the Royal Navy in 1779 and commissioned as HMS ''Blanche'' before being lost in the
Great Hurricane of 1780 The Great Hurricane of 1780 was the deadliest tropical cyclone in the Western Hemisphere. An estimated 22,000 people died throughout the Lesser Antilles when the storm passed through the islands from October 10 to October 16. Specifics on the h ...
. The
fitting out Fitting out, or outfitting, is the process in shipbuilding that follows the float-out/launching of a vessel and precedes sea trials. It is the period when all the remaining construction of the ship is completed and readied for delivery to her o ...
process for ''Blanche'' was completed on 17 January 1801, also at Deptford. With a crew complement of 264, the frigate held twenty-six 18-pounder
long gun A long gun is a category of firearms with long Gun barrel, barrels. In small arms, a ''long gun'' or longarm is generally designed to be held by both hands and braced against the shoulder, in contrast to a handgun, which can be fired being held w ...
s on her upper deck. Complementing this armament were ten 32-pounder
carronade A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the last quarter of the 18th century to the mid-19th cen ...
s and two 9-pounder long guns on the
quarterdeck The quarterdeck is a raised deck behind the main mast of a sailing ship. Traditionally it was where the captain commanded his vessel and where the ship's colours were kept. This led to its use as the main ceremonial and reception area on bo ...
, with an additional two 9-pounder long guns and four 32-pounder carronades on the
forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck (ship), deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is t ...
. ''Blanche''s armament stayed as originally established throughout her service.


Service


Copenhagen

''Blanche'' was commissioned under the command of
Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
Graham Hamond on 19 November 1800. After fitting out was completed in January the following year ''Blanche'' joined the
Baltic Fleet The Baltic Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea. Established 18 May 1703, under Tsar Peter the Great as part of the Imperial Russian Navy, the Baltic Fleet is the oldest Russian fleet. In 1918, the fleet w ...
at Yarmouth in preparation to sail to
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
to harass Denmark, part of the Anti-British Second League of Armed Neutrality. On 19 March ''Blanche'' was sent ahead of the fleet to Elsinore, landing the member of parliament Nicholas Vansittart for a meeting with the British Minister to Denmark, William Drummond, so that they could outline the Foreign Secretary Lord Hawkesbury's ultimatum to the Danes. After two days negotiations failed and ''Blanche'' took Drummond and his suite on board, returning to the fleet anchored in
Øresund Øresund or Öresund (, ; ; ), commonly known in English as the Sound, is a strait which forms the Denmark–Sweden border, Danish–Swedish border, separating Zealand (Denmark) from Scania (Sweden). The strait has a length of ; its width var ...
on 22 March. Drummond and Vansittart explained that rather than acceding to the British terms, the Danes were strengthening their defences and planning to rebuff the British fleet. In preparation to make an attack on Copenhagen, on 27 March ''Blanche'' escorted two of the fleet's bomb ships to a position from which they would be able to bombard the fortress of
Kronborg Kronborg is a castle and historical stronghold in the town of Helsingør, Denmark. Immortalised as Elsinore in William Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet'', Kronborg is one of the most important Renaissance castles in Northern Europe. It was inscribed ...
. During the night of 1 April the frigate grounded off
Amager Amager ( ), located in the Øresund, is Denmark's most densely populated island, with more than 216,000 inhabitants (January 2022). The protected natural area of ''Naturpark Amager'' (including Kalvebod Fælled) makes up more than one-third of the ...
. The crew spent the night re-floating and rectifying the vessel, and received no sleep prior to the start of the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April. In engaging the Danish
line of battle The line of battle or the battle line is a tactic in naval warfare in which a fleet of ships (known as ships of the line) forms a line end to end. The first example of its use as a tactic is disputed—it has been variously claimed for date ...
''Blanche'' was part of a flotilla of five frigates under the command of Captain
Edward Riou Edward Riou Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (20 November 17622 April 1801) was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary Wars under several of the most distinguished naval officers of his age and won fame and hono ...
that were to act as a manoeuvrable reserve force. After beginning the battle by firing opportunistically in the gaps between the British
ships of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which involved the two column ...
, at 11:30 a.m. Riou took the flotilla to form an arc at the northern-most point of the British line. For this ''Blanche'' was stationed between the 38-gun HMS ''Amazon'' and 32-gun HMS ''Alcmene''. The frigates attacked the 64-gun ship of the line ''Holsteen'' and
blockship A blockship is a ship deliberately sunk to prevent a river, channel, or canal from being used as a waterway. It may either be sunk by a navy defending the waterway to prevent the ingress of attacking enemy forces, as in the case of at Portland ...
''Indfødsretten'', while receiving heavy fire from the nearby
Trekroner Fort Trekroner Søfort (literally ''Three Crowns Sea Fortress'') is a sea fort at the entrance to the Copenhagen harbour. From 1713 until after World War I, Trekroner Fort was part of the fortifications of Copenhagen. The original location of Tre ...
and 16-gun defence frigate ''Hielperen''. The frigates withdrew after two hours, having received heavy casualties in the victorious battle. In the engagement ''Blanche'' received seven men killed and a further nine badly wounded, with damage to her hull and
rigging Rigging comprises the system of ropes, cables and chains, which support and control a sailing ship or sail boat's masts and sails. ''Standing rigging'' is the fixed rigging that supports masts including shrouds and stays. ''Running rigg ...
. In the wake of the battle the commander of the British fleet,
Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...
Sir Hyde Parker, agreed an armistice with the Danes that the
First Lord of the Admiralty First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the title of the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible f ...
, Admiral Lord St Vincent, believed was too lenient, and he recalled Parker. On 5 May Parker left his
flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...
and went on board ''Blanche'', reaching Yarmouth in the frigate on 13 May.


Channel Fleet

''Blanche'' spent the rest of the French Revolutionary Wars attached to Admiral
William Cornwallis Admiral Sir William Cornwallis, (20 February 17445 July 1819) was a Royal Navy officer. He was the brother of Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British commander at the siege of Yorktown. Cornwallis took part in a number of decisive ...
'
Channel Fleet The Channel Fleet and originally known as the Channel Squadron was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1854 to 1909 and 1914 to 1915. History Throughout the course of Royal Navy's history th ...
patrolling the
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 Point Penmarc'h to the Spanish border, and along the northern coast of Spain, extending westward ...
. Captain Barrington Dacres took command of the frigate at the
Peace of Amiens The Treaty of Amiens (, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France, the Spanish Empire, and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it set t ...
in May 1802, serving as part of the Royal Escort to
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at Weymouth for much of the year, and patrolling off
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
and
Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
combatting smugglers. ''Blanche'' was
paid off Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship i ...
on 22 September as part of a
refit Refitting or refit of boats and marine vessels includes repairing, fixing, restoring, renewing, mending, and renovating an old vessel. Refitting has become one of the most important activities inside a shipyard. It offers a variety of services for ...
that had begun at
Sheerness Dockyard Sheerness Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the Sheerness peninsula, at the mouth of the River Medway in Kent. It was opened in the 1660s and closed in 1960. Location In the Age of Sail, the Royal Navy would often establish shore ...
in August. The naval historian Rif Winfield records Dacres as commanding ''Blanche'' to this stage, but the biographer
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states that Hamond retained command until paying off. As the refit was approaching completion Captain Zachary Mudge recommissioned the ship in October, having joined on 23 September, and ''Blanche'' left the dockyard in January 1803.


West Indies

With the Peace of Amiens having ended with the start of the Napoleonic Wars, ''Blanche'' sailed to the
West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
where she joined the
Blockade of Saint-Domingue The blockade of Saint-Domingue was a naval campaign fought during the first months of the Napoleonic Wars in which a series of British Royal Navy squadrons blockaded the French-held ports of Cap-Français and Môle-Saint-Nicolas on the norther ...
towards the end of the year. On 3 November she discovered the French 4-gun
privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...
cutter ''L'Albion'' sheltering under the gun batteries of Monte Christi. Mudge sent four of ''Blanche''s boats with sixty-three men to cut out ''Albion'', but did so in broad daylight; before they could reach the French ship ''Blanche''s boats turned back, believing the task too dangerous. Mudge decided to attack ''Albion'' again, this time during the night of 3–4 November. He sent the marine
Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
Edward Nicolls General Sir Edward Nicolls ( â€“ 5 February 1865) was a Royal Marines officer and colonial administrator who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812. Known as "Fighting Nicolls", he had a distinguished mili ...
out in a boat with thirteen men to make the attack, but soon realised this was not enough and sent Lieutenant
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with twenty-two men to reinforce and supersede Nicolls. The two boats approached ''Albion'', but Lake believed the French vessel to be in a different location and took his boat off in the wrong direction, leaving Nicolls to make the attack alone. Nicolls boarded ''Albion'' and, despite being shot through the stomach, quickly captured the vessel, the British having killed five of the French crew. With gun batteries overlooking the scene of the battle, Nicolls had his men keep firing their muskets to make it seem as if the battle was still ongoing, so that the batteries would not fire on the newly taken ship. As Nicolls was just getting ''Albion'' away from the shore Lake appeared in his boat and ordered the men to stop firing. "As a reward of his stupidity", the naval historian
William Laird Clowes Sir William Laird Clowes (1 February 1856 – 14 August 1905) was a British journalist and historian whose principal work was ''The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to 1900'', a text that is still in print. He also wrote numerous ...
says, the gun batteries then killed two of his men before ''Albion'' sailed out of range. Mudge reported Lake rather than Nicolls as the victor of the battle, leading the contemporary naval historian
William James William James (January 11, 1842 â€“ August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...
to suggest Lake was a favourite of the captain's, despite Clowes describing him as "a thoroughly worthless officer". Mudge's operations were not always so confused, and in a one-month period off San Domingo he captured or destroyed twenty-four vessels, halting much of the communication between the blockaded islands. In the morning after the capture of ''Albion'' one of ''Blanche''s boats attacked and captured a 1-gun privateer
schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...
. About a day after this another of the frigate's boats, under the command of
Midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest Military rank#Subordinate/student officer, rank in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Royal Cana ...
Edward Henry à Court, was on a mission to gather sand with eight men and five muskets on board, when they encountered a French schooner with over thirty soldiers. À Court chose to board the schooner despite his numerical disadvantage, and successfully captured the vessel when the soldiers were found to all be seasick. Under the orders of Captain John Bligh the frigate then joined in an attempt to capture Curacao. Bligh's force brought itself together off San Domingo on 15 January 1804, and reached
Bonaire Bonaire is a Caribbean island in the Leeward Antilles, and is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially Public body (Netherlands), "public body") of the Netherlands. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west (Windward an ...
on 30 January. They reached the capital of Curacao,
Willemstad Willemstad ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that is a Countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was the cap ...
, in the following day, and at 9:30 a.m. Bligh's demand for capitulation was refused. The main port of St Anne was heavily fortified, so Bligh landed a force of
Royal Marines The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...
elsewhere on the coast, leaving ''Blanche'' and the 36-gun frigate HMS ''Pique'' to guard St Anne. After initial success Bligh's invasion was dogged by sickness and high casualties from skirmishes, and on 25 February they reembarked having failed to take the island. Continuing off Curacao, ''Blanche'' captured the French 14-gun privateer ''La Gracieuse'' on 21 October and at some point in the year also took the Dutch 4-gun schooner ''Nimrod''. The ship captured two more French privateers in 1805; the 6-gun ''Le Hansard'' on 5 April and the 14-gun schooner ''L'Amitie'' on 9 April.


Loss

''Blanche'' was sailing north of
Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...
at on 19 July 1805, on a journey from
Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
to
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with despatches for
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, when she was spotted at daybreak by a French squadron. This force included the 40-gun frigate ''Topaze'', 22-gun sloop ''Départment des Landes'', 18-gun
corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...
''Torche'', and 16-gun
brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...
''Faune''. It was commanded by Captain François-André Baudin. Mudge initially took the French squadron to be a British convoy that had also been sailing in the area, and he moved towards the ships. When the French began closing with him and ignored ''Blanche''s signals Mudge realised his mistake and attempted to run from the superior force. ''Blanche'' had lost almost all her
copper sheathing Copper sheathing is a method for protecting the hull of a wooden vessel from attack by shipworm, barnacles and other marine growth through the use of copper plates affixed to the surface of the hull, below the waterline. It was pioneered and d ...
in the previous nine months of service, and as such she sailed very poorly and the French were easily able to catch up with the frigate. The battle began at about 11 a.m. when ''Topaze'' reached ''Blanche'', exchanging broadsides on the British ship's
starboard Port and starboard are Glossary of nautical terms (M-Z), nautical terms for watercraft and spacecraft, referring respectively to the left and right sides of the vessel, when aboard and facing the Bow (watercraft), bow (front). Vessels with bil ...
side. ''Départment des Landes'' came up and occupied ''Blanche''s starboard quarter and
stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. O ...
alongside ''Topaze'', attacking with their
chase gun A chase gun (or chaser), usually distinguished as bow chaser and stern chaser, was a cannon mounted in the bow (aiming forward) or stern (aiming backward) of a sailing ship. They were used to attempt to slow down an enemy ship either chasing (p ...
s. ''Faune'' did not close with the British frigate. After half an hour of battle ''Blanche'' attempted to get across ''Topaze''s bow to
rake Rake may refer to: Common meanings * Rake (tool), a horticultural implement, a long-handled tool with tines * Rake (stock character), a man habituated to immoral conduct * Rake (poker), the commission taken by the house when hosting a poker game ...
her, but as she manoeuvred, the French vessel luffed up behind ''Blanche'' and achieved a raking fire of her own through ''Blanche''s stern. The battle continued for forty-five minutes, with the French destroying all of ''Blanche''s sails and rigging, leaving her unable to manoeuvre and her fore and main masts disabled. At about 12 a.m. Mudge surrendered ''Blanche'' in a sinking state, having lost eight members of the crew killed and a further fifteen wounded. French casualties were minimal, with ''Topaze'' having three men killed and nine wounded. The French took control of ''Blanche'', but at 6 p.m. found her to be sinking and unrecoverable. Her timbers were infected with
dry rot Dry rot is wood decay caused by one of several species of fungi that digest parts of wood which give it strength and stiffness. It was previously used to describe any decay of cured wood in ships and buildings by a fungus which resulted in a ...
and had broken easily under the French gunnery. The frigate was set on fire, burning to the
waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. A waterline can also refer to any line on a ship's hull that is parallel to the water's surface when the ship is afloat in a level trimmed position. Hence, wate ...
before sinking in the evening.


Aftermath

Twenty-two members of ''Blanche''s crew were taken on board ''Faune'', which was then captured to the west of Rochfort on 15 August by the 74-gun ship of the line HMS ''Goliath'' and 20-gun
post ship Post ship was a designation used in the Royal Navy during the second half of the 18th century and the Napoleonic Wars to describe a sixth-rate ship (see rating system of the Royal Navy) that was smaller than a frigate (in practice, carrying ...
HMS ''Camilla''. Later in the day ''Goliath'', now accompanied by the 64-gun ship of the line HMS ''Raisonnable'', found the other three ships of the French squadron to the south. These vessels scattered to avoid the powerful British ships, with ''Goliath'' chasing and capturing ''Torche'' soon afterwards, recovering another fifty-two of ''Blanche''s crew. ''Raisonnable'' instead focused on ''Topaze'', getting in range on 16 August, but was forced to give up the chase when ''Topaze''s chase guns did heavy damage to her rigging, leaving both ''Topaze'' and ''Départment des Landes'' to escape, the former to Lisbon with Mudge on board. Having reached Lisbon, Mudge and the crew remaining with him were released upon application from the British
consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...
there. Despite some suggestions that ''Blanche'' had not been fully prepared for the fight and had given up too easily, Mudge was honourably acquitted in a
court martial A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the mili ...
at
Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...
on 14 October for losing his ship.
Rear-Admiral Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral. Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...
John Sutton praised Mudge's James has questioned how truthful Mudge was in his account of the loss of ''Blanche'', noting how he greatly overestimated the strength of his four opponents in his reports and made suggestions of much higher casualties than had actually occurred. The French officers involved also negated Mudge's account of an especially hard-fought battle, noting how only ''Topaze'' had truly engaged ''Blanche'', with the other vessels firing very few shots at the British ship, and those mostly at the rigging and masts. James ends his debate on the merits of the defence of ''Blanche'' by saying: The historian E. V. E. Sharpston builds on James' argument, concluding that: Part of ''Blanche''s wreck, including her mainmast, was found floating at by the American schooner ''Sally'' on 27 July; the ship then found another mast a mile onward, with rigging and an anchor still attached. A still flying battle ensign could be seen underwater. Markings on the recovered material led the captain of ''Sally'' to initially announce that he had discovered the destruction of the 74-gun ship of the line HMS ''Blenheim'' rather than the remains of ''Blanche'', but this was rectified by a report in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' on 16 October.


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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blanche (1800) 1800 ships Fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy Apollo-class frigates Ships built in Deptford