1806 - Capture of the Présidente


 
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Naval history of Great Britain - Vol. IV
by
William James
1806 Light Squadrons and Single Ships 264

wound was a very serious one. While leaning with his right hand on the railing of the quarterdeck, giving orders, a musket-ball entered and passed through between the wrist and the elbow, lodging below the shoulder. The shattered condition of the arm rendered amputation necessary.

The damages of the Monarch were of a similar description to those of the Centaur, except that the former had her main topgallantmast shot away, and was more hit in the hull. The Monarch's loss amounted to one midshipman (William Buddin) and three seamen killed, one lieutenant (John Anderson), her boatswain (Peter Duffy), one midshipman (John Geary), 15 seamen, and seven marines wounded ; total, on board the two ships, nine killed and 29 wounded. The Mars, the only ship besides these, that took, or could take, any part in the engagement, sustained a slight injury in her sails and rigging, but, although hulled eight or ten times, escaped without any loss.

The Gloire mounted 46 guns ; and each of the other French frigates 44 ; long 18s on the main deck, and long eights, with iron 36-pounder carronades, on the quarterdeck and forecastle. They each had on board, including troops, about 650 men, and were full of stores, arms, ammunition, and provisions. No doubt it was owing to their being so deeply laden, that these frigates were not able, in the first instance, to escape from the line-of-battle ships.

Sir Samuel, in his official letter, promises to make a return, as soon as possible, of the loss sustained by the captured frigates ; merely stating, that the result of their " obstinate resistance was attended with much slaughter. " No doubt the Gloire, Armide, and Minerve severally suffered a very heavy loss, and were proportionably cut up in rigging, masts and hull. Such gallant conduct on the part of the French ships merited a circumstantial account of the state, in point of damage and loss, in which they were at their surrender ; and, admitting that the promised return was transmitted to the admiralty, it ought to have been published in the Gazette, if only as an act of justice towards a brave enemy.

These captured frigates were of very large dimensions. The Minerve measured 1101, the Armide 1104, the Gloire 1153, and the Infatigable 1157 tons. They were all added to the British navy ; the first under the name of Alceste, the last, of Immortalité, and the other two under their French names.

On the 31st of October, 1805, a French squadron, composed the new 74-gun ship Régulus, 40-gun frigates Présidente and Cybèle, and brig-corvette Surveillant, under the orders of commodore Jean-Marthe-Adrien L'Hermitte, sailed out of the port of Lorient, on a predatory cruise, first along the western coast of Africa, and subsequently in the Antilles. It had been Napoléon's intention to have embarked on board this squadron, to which another frigate or two were to have been added, 1000

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