HMS Brilliant (1779)

HMS ''Brilliant'' was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. ''Brilliant'' was first commissioned in July 1779 under the command of Captain John Ford.

American Revolution

''Brilliant'' was stationed at Gibraltar during the Great Siege. In June 1782 the garrison there launched 12 gunboats. Each was armed with an 18-pounder gun, and received a crew of 21 men drawn from Royal Navy vessels stationed at Gibraltar. ''Brilliant'' provided crews for six: ''Defiance'', ''Dreadnought'', ''Resolution'', ''Revenge'', ''Spitfire'', and ''Thunder''.

On 13 and 14 September and 11 October, the garrison destroyed a number of floating batteries. In December 1784 there was a distribution of £30,000 in bounty money for the batteries and the proceeds of the sale of ships stores, including those of ''San Miguel''. A second payment of £16,000 followed in November 1785. A third payment, this of £8,000, followed in August 1786. June 1788 saw the payment of a fourth tranche, this of £4,000. ''Brilliant''s officers and crew shared in all four.

French Revolutionary Wars

Between July 1796 and October 1798 ''Brilliant''s captain was Henry Blackwood. On 27 July, at Tenerife, ''Brilliant'' observed the frigates and preparing to sail for Rochefort.Troude, vol.3, p. 130 At 6, the French frigates sailed and started firing on ''Brilliant''; ''Régénérée'' was closing in on her opponent when ''Vertu'', which had sailed large, touched the wind; ''Régénérée'' imitated her manoeuvre, but lost her mizzen and bowsprit, allowing ''Brilliant'' to flee. ''Vertu'' gave chase, but could not overhaul her opponent and returned to Tenerife. There, ''Régénérée'' replaced her rigging, and both frigates eventually arrived in Rochefort on 5 September.

On 25 August 1800, the 74-gun ''Impétueux'', ''Brilliant'', 16-gun ship-sloop and the 14-gun hired cutter ''St Vincent'' silenced a battery that was armed with eight 24-pounders. Then seamen from the ships landed to assist a large force of army troops to haul the guns up to the heights. The army withdrew the same day after a skirmish with Spanish troops.

At the end of the month, ''Brilliant'' was in a detachment under Samuel Hood that captured a French privateer, ''Gueppe'', in a cutting-out expedition. ''Gueppe'', a flush-deck ship of 300 tons and carrying 18 guns, was initially in the harbour at Vigo but, when the British force entered the bay on 29 August, was moved to near the Narrows of Redondela where she anchored below a shore battery. Hood selected two boats from ''Brilliant'', , , , and , four boats from , with additional boats from , , and ''Impetueux'' to take part in the action. The boats left at 21:00 and arrived alongside their quarry at 00:40 the following morning. Despite fierce resistance, ''Gueppe'' was taken within 15 minutes of boarding, after having 25 of her crew killed and forty wounded.

On 8 September ''Brilliant'' sent the prize ''Dragon'' into Plymouth. She was a packet of 14 guns, bound for L'Orient from Guadeloupe and carrying a cargo of cocoa, coffee, indigo and cotton.

Napoleonic Wars

On 25 June 1805, had been chasing a French frigate privateer for some twelve hours when and ''Brilliant'' came up and cut-off the quarry, forcing her to surrender. She was the ''Valiant'' (or ) of Bordeaux. She was armed with twenty-four 18-pounder guns on her main deck and six 6-pounders, which she threw overboard while ''Loire'' was pursuing her. She had a crew of 240 men. She had been out for 20 days on a four-month cruise but had only captured the Halifax packet ''Lord Charles Spencer''. The Royal Navy took ''Vaillant'' into service as HMS ''Barbette''.

On 8 October 1807 ''Brilliant'' and captured the Danish ships ''St Hans'' and ''Montreal''.

On 20 October 1808 ''Brilliant'' was in company with and the hired armed lugger , when they discovered the Revenue cutter ''Active'' chasing a French privateer. The British were able to capture their quarry, which turned out to be the lugger ''Pointe du Jour'', of Roscow. She was armed with three guns and carried a crew of 30 men. Captain Thomas Smyth reported that she "has cruized successfully against our Trade." ''Lloyd's List'' reported that ''Break of Day'' was armed with two swivel guns and had a crew of 32 men. She had captured ''Mary'', Bibias, master, off the Eddystone. ''Mary'' had been coming from New Brunswick The excise cutter ''Active'' had recaptured ''Mary'' the same day. ''Break of Day'' had also captured on 16 September ''Leeds Merchant'' of and for Weymouth, which had been sailing to Guernsey, and ''Success'', of Milford, which had been sailing from Youghal to Southampton.

Fate

''Brilliant'' was broken up at Portsmouth in November 1811.Winfield (2007)

Citations

References

* Drinkwater, John (1905) ''A History of the Siege of Gibraltar, 1779-1783: With a Description and Account of that Garrison from the Earliest Times''. (J. Murray).
* Robert Gardiner, ''The First Frigates'', Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. .
* David Lyon, ''The Sailing Navy List'', Conway Maritime Press, London 1993. .
*
* Rif Winfield, '' British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714 to 1792'', Seaforth Publishing, London 2007. .

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brilliant (1779)
1779 ships
Sixth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy
Ships built on the Beaulieu River