HMS Matilda (1794)
| History | |
|---|---|
 France
|
|
| Name: | Bonheur |
| Builder: | Louis & Antoine Crucy and Jean Baudet, Basse-Indre |
| Laid down: | June 179e |
| Launched: | 30 March 1794 |
| Renamed: | Jacobine (November 1793) |
| Fate: | Captured October 1794 |
 Great Britain
|
|
| Name: | HMS Matilda |
| Acquired: | By capture 30 October 1794 |
| Fate: | Broken up August 1810 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 573 (bm) |
| Length: | 129 ft 3 in (39.4 m) (overall); 105 ft 5 in (32.1 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 32 ft 10 in (10.0 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 9 ft 10 in (3.0 m) |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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HMS Matilda was the French corvette Jacobine (or Jacobin), which was launched in March 1794 and which the British captured in the West Indies seven months later. She served in the West Indies until 1799, capturing six small privateers. In 1799 she sailed to Woolwich where she became a hospital ship. Between 1805 and 1807 she was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Henry Stanhope. She was broken up in 1810.
Jacobine was originally named Bonheur, but received the name change before she was launched. She was built to a one-off design by Pierre Degay.
Jacobine was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Dalbarde from 3 April 1794 until 13 September 1794. She initially was stationed at Nantes. She then sailed from Mindin (opposite Saint-Nazaire), to Brest. From there she made a patrol in the Atlantic, returning to Brest. Her next commander was lieutenant de vaisseau Dandicolle.
HMS Ganges and Montagu captured Jacobine. She was armed with twenty-four 12-pounder guns, and had a crew of 220 men; she was nine days out of Brest and had taken nothing. The capture took place on 31 October 1794, about 30 leagues west of Cape Finisterre. Ganges and Montague were sailing to the West Indies and took Jacobine with them.
The Royal Navy in July 1795 commissioned Matilda under Commander George Vaughan. (Because she was a sixth rate she would normally be a post captain's command, and Vaughan indeed received the requisite promotion in November.) In fact, Matilda was already in service by July.
Vice-Admiral Benjamin Caldwell, the commander-in-chief of the Barbados and Leeward Islands station had stationed her off Basseterre, Guadeloupe. She joined up with him at Saint-Pierre, Martinique, on 29 June with the report that the day before she had seen a French squadron of nine ships, three of them large frigates. They had chased him off, and sailed into the port.
She had also qualified to share in the proceeds of the capture of Saint Lucia in 25 May by the naval forces under Admiral Hugh Cloberry Christian and troops under Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby.
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Wikipedia