French frigate Concorde (1791)

History
France
Name	Concorde
Namesake	Concord
Builder	Brest
Laid down	April 1790
Launched	25 October 1791
In service	May 1793
Captured	4 August 1800
General characteristics
Class and type	Nymphe-class frigate
Displacement	750 tonnes
Length	46.9 m (153 ft 10 in)
Beam	11.9 m (39 ft 1 in)
Draught	5.8 m (19 ft 0 in)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Armament	40 guns to 46 guns

Concorde was a Nymphe-class 40-gun frigate of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in August 1800.

Service history

On 27 May 1793, Concorde captured the 24-gun HMS Hyaena; she became the privateer Hyene, which the Royal Navy recaptured in 1797.

Concorde took part in the Expédition d'Irlande, and on 12 October 1798, in aftermath of the Battle of Tory Island.

Concorde was part of a squadron of three frigates, Concorde under Commodore Jean-François Landolphe, Médée under Captain Jean-Daniel Coudin, and Franchise under Captain Pierre Jurien, with Landolphe as the overall commander, that left Rochefort on 6 March 1799. Eluding the British blockade off Rochefort, the squadron sailed southwards until it reached the coast of West Africa. There, Landolphe's ships began an extended commerce raiding operation, inflicting severe damage on the West African trade. During this time, the squadron captured the Portuguese island of Prince (Príncipe). Eventually the strain of serving in tropical waters told on the ships and all three were forced to undergo an extensive refit in the nearest available allied shipyards, which were located in the Spanish-held River Plate in South America. At Montevideo the squadron assisted the French prisoners that had captured and taken into that port the convict transport Lady Shore which was carrying them to Australia.

Repairs continued for six months, until Landolphe considered the squadron once again ready to sail in the early summer of 1800. The squadron almost immediately captured off the coast of Brazil the American schooner Espérance (Hope), which they used as an aviso and sent to Cayenne with a prize crew under the command of enseigne de vaisseau Hamon. (At the time, France and the United States had been engaged for two years in the Quasi War.)

Fate

The fourth rate HMS Belliqueux, captured Concorde off Rio de Janeiro at the action of 4 August 1800. The British sailed her to port in Britain but the Royal Navy did not take her into service.

References

• 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)
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671–1870. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French warships in the age of sail, 1786-1861. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-184832-204-2.

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