Thomas Luny - Action off the coast of France 13th May 1779

HMS ''Fortune'' was a British 14-gun sloop launched in 1778 that the French captured in April 1780. She then served with the French navy under the same name.

British service

Commander

Charles Powell Hamilton Admiral Charles Powell Hamilton (26 December 1747 – 12 March 1825) was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of a ...

commissioned ''Fortune'' in June 1778 for the Channel. Invasion of Jersey: In late April 1779 a small French squadron carrying troops sailed from

Saint-Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo language, Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany (administrative region), Brittany. The Fortification, walled city on the English Channel coast had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth ...

to land at St Ouen's Bay on Jersey. They arrived off shore on 1 May. The British moved guns and troops and guns to oppose the landing. The French armed vessels were unable to get close enough to shore to provide supporting fire so the troop transports did not attempt to land their troops. The French sailed away. The French sailed from

on 13 May and immediately encountered a British naval relief squadron, that included ''Fortune'', that belatedly come up. The British succeeded in chasing the French into Cancale Bay, where the British captured the French frigate ''Danae'', and a

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 ...

and

cutter Cutter may refer to: Tools * Bolt cutter * Box cutter * Cigar cutter * Cookie cutter * Cutter (hydraulic rescue tool) * Glass cutter * Meat cutter * Milling cutter * Paper cutter * Pizza cutter * Side cutter People * Cutter (surname) * Cutt ...

. They also set fire to three French vessels. Commander Powell was promoted to

post captain Post-captain or post captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy. The term "post-captain" was descriptive only; it was never used as a title in the form "Post-Captain John Smith". The term served to di ...

on 18 May 1779. Commander Matthew Squire replaced Hamilton. On 19 May, a small sloop that ''Fortune'' had captured at Cancale Bay arrived at Portsmouth. The sloop was carrying lead, tin, and linseed. On 19 October ''Fortune'' returned to Portsmouth from Mogadore. In November 1779 ''Fortune'' was under the command of Commander Lewis Robertson. He sailed for the Leeward Islands on 19 January 1780. Capture: On 26 April the two French frigates (40 guns) and (34 guns) captured ''Fortune'' off Barbuda. The frigates belonged to Guichen’s squadron. ''Fortune'' had sighted some vessels and approached cautiously. When she made signals that the unknown vessels did not return, and when Robertson could not understand their signals, he guessed that the vessels were French and he attempted to sail away. Two frigates left the French squadron o pursue ''Fortune''. ''Fortune'' initially outpaced her pursuers until the winds weakened and the pursuers were able to catch up. ''Gentille'' fired sporadically until ''Iphigénie'' also came up. At that point Robertson

struck Struck is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Adolf Struck Adolf Hermann Struck (1877–1911) was a German sightseer and writer. He is known for his Travel literature, travelogue ''Makedonische Fahrten'' and for surveying the ...

French service

The beginning of the

Fourth Anglo-Dutch War The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (; 1780–1784) was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on t ...

in 1780 effectively put the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

on the French side of the Anglo-French War and the

War of American Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. The Dutch expected a British invasion of their

Dutch Cape Colony The Cape of Good Hope () was a Dutch United East India Company (VOC) supplystation in Southern Africa, centered on the Cape of Good Hope, from where it derived its name. The original supply station and the successive states that the area was ...

, and France assembled a 5-ship squadron under Suffren to reinforce it. The task force comprised the 74-gun ''Héros'' (under Suffren himself) and (under Trémignon), and the 64-gun ''Artésien'' (under Cardaillac), ''Sphinx'' (under du Chilleau) and ''Vengeur'' (under Forbin), as well as the 16-gun corvette ''Fortune'' (under Lieutenant

Lusignan The House of Lusignan ( ; ) was a royal house of French origin, which at various times ruled several principalities in Europe and the Levant, including the kingdoms of Jerusalem, Cyprus, and Armenia, from the 12th through the 15th centuries du ...

), and seven transports carrying the Régiment de Pondichéry, under Brigadier General

Thomas Conway Thomas Conway (February 27, 1735 – March 1795) was an Irish-born army officer and colonial administrator who served as the French India#Governors, governor of French India from 1787 to 1789. Over the course of his military career, he served in ...

. The squadron departed Brest on 22 March 1781. ''Fortune'' and ''Annibal'' were the only two ships in the squadron not to have a

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 ...

. She took part in the

Battle of Porto Praya The Battle of Porto Praya was a naval battle that took place during the American Revolutionary War on 16 April 1781 between a British squadron under Commodore George Johnstone and a French squadron under Pierre André de Suffren. Both squadr ...

, where she captured the fireship HMS ''Infernal''; Suffren then ordered Lusignan to bring orders to the French transports, and he abandoned ''Infernal'' after taking her captain and 15 men prisoners. ''Infernal'' returned to Porto Praya harbour. On 21 August 1782, ''Ilustre'' and ''Saint-Michel'' arrived at Batacalo, making their junction with the squadron under Suffren. They were escorting 8 transports and preceded by the corvette ''Fortune'', under Lusignan. On 20 August 1782, Lusignan was at the vanguard of the French squadron when it departed Batacalo for the

Battle of Trincomalee Plan of the battle (British units - black, French - white) The Battle of Trincomalee was fought between a British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes and a French fleet under the Bailli de Suffren off the coast of Trincomalee, then Cey ...

. After the Battle, in early September 1782, Suffren promoted Bouvet de Maisonneuve to the command of ''Fortune''. In April 1783, after the Peace of Paris brought about a cease-fire between the French and the British, Suffren sent ''Fortune'' back to France to report on his situation. In October 1783 she became a

packet ship Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed mainly for domestic mail and freight transport in European countries and in North American rivers and canals. Eventually including basic passenger accommodation, they were used extensively during t ...

under the name ''Courrier de Lorient'' (and later ''Courrier de Lorient No.3''), serving out of

Lorient Lorient (; ) is a town (''Communes of France, commune'') and Port, seaport in the Morbihan Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in western France. History Prehistory and classical antiquity Beginn ...

on the line Lorient-New York. In January 1787 she was transferred to the Régie des Paquebots, for whom she served on the Havre-New York line. She was put up for sale at Havre in December 1788 and sold in January 1789 to Mr. Ruellan.

Citations

References

* * * * * * * (1671-1870) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fortune (1778) Corvettes of the French Navy