HMS ''Proserpine'' was a 44-gun frigate of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

. The

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captured her off

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label=Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is the ...

about a year after her commissioning and took her into service as ''Proserpine''. She served in various capacities such as a frigate,

troopship A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...

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, and

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until 1865.

HMS ''Proserpine'', and capture

Captain Charles Otter commissioned ''Proserpine'' in September 1807. He then sailed her to the Mediterranean Sea on 6 March 1808. The British sent ''Proserpine'' to sail off Toulon to observe and report on the movements of the French fleet. Captain

Bernard Dubourdieu Bernard Dubourdieu (28 April 1773 – 13 March 1811) was a French rear-admiral who led the allied French-Venetian forces at the Battle of Lissa in 1811, during which he was killed. Life A native of Bayonne, Dubourdieu started sailing on a mer ...

analyzed her patrol pattern, leading the French to send his frigate, , accompanied by , to approach her in the night. They pretended to be the British relief that Otter was expecting and succeeded in engaging her at short range. In the ensuing Action of 27 February 1809, ''Proserpine'' had her rigging severely damaged; with no hope of escape or rescue, she struck her colours after a one-hour battle that claimed the life of one of her men, and wounded ten others, one mortally. ''Pénélope'' towed ''Proserpine'' to Toulon.

French career

At Toulon the French Navy repaired her and took her into French service under her existing name, commissioning her on 1 May 1809. On 1 April, ''capitaine de frégate'' Ganteaume, younger brother of Admiral

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, took command of ''Proserpine'', transferring from . Between 28 June and August 1809 she was still under captain Ganteaume's command. She served Admiral Ganteaume's Mediterranean squadron for the remainder of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, with a refit in Genoa in 1810. Between 12 April 1811 and 11 October she was in Genoa

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, and under the command of ''capitaine de frégate'' Ganteaume, later ''capitaine de vaisseau''. He was still her captain on 1 February 1812, at Toulon.''Fonds Marine'', p. 461 At the

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in 1814, ''Proserpine'' was

decommissioned Decommissioning is a general term for a formal process to remove something from an active status, and may refer to: Infrastructure * Decommissioned offshore * Decommissioned highway * Greenfield status of former industrial sites * Nuclear decommi ...

and put in the reserve in Toulon. She was recommissioned in 1828, and took part in the

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. In 1840 she was re-classified as an 800-ton displacement ''corvette de charge''. In 1842, she was transformed into a troopship, and in January 1846 as a transport. She was fitted as a hospital ship in October 1850 at

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. She served as a hospital ship in the

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during the

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. The French Navy sent ''Proserpine'' to

Cayenne Cayenne (; ; gcr, Kayenn) is the capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic coast. The city's m ...

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, in 1856. There she was converted to a prison hulk in January 1857.

Fate

She was struck from the lists on 20 July 1865, and broken up in 1865-66 in French Guiana.

Citations and references

Citations

References

* Fonds Marine. Campagnes (opérations; divisions et stations navales; missions diverses). Inventaire de la sous-série Marine BB4. Tome premier : BB4 210 à 482 (1805-1826

* * *Winfield, Rif & Stephen S Roberts (2015) ''French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786 - 1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates''. (Seaforth Publishing). {{DEFAULTSORT:Proserpine (1807) Age of Sail frigates of France 1807 ships Amphion-class frigates Ships built in England Captured ships