Caputred french ships

[Kameradenschwein]

I got the impression that early every time I read somewhere something about a cool french ship of the age of sail I stumble across the line that says - got captured by the British in XXXX and renamed to XXXX.
Is it just me or did the French build a lot of ships "for" the royal navy?

 

[maturin]

 

 

The blocus by the British Navy during the French Revolution.

The crew were inexperienced as an effect of the blocus

And a lot of the officers emigrated because they were part of the nobility.

The British were beating the French in single-ship combat for a century before the revolution.

 

I can only think of two cases where a Frigate duel ended in the destruction or capture of the British vessel. (If there are more, I would love to learn about them.)

[Vernon Merrill]

Hmmmmm....  Surveillante vs. Quebec?  Not too many, for sure.

[maturin]

Forgot about HMS Ambuscade vs. Bayonnaise.

[Sire Trinkof]

The British were beating the French in single-ship combat for a century before the revolution.

 

I can only think of two cases where a Frigate duel ended in the destruction or capture of the British vessel. (If there are more, I would love to learn about them.)

LOL ... read history a little bit more please : 

after Louis the XIV and spain succession wars, there were 4 wars between french and british : 

1. Austrian succession war 1748  : considered an humiliation for british navy, on a more "rational" point of view, a draw on the seas, with some major french victories

2. Seven year war 1754 : Disaster for the french on the seas (and land) , mainly because of the "treacherous" war declaration : birt ceased and captured a lot of french ships before the war officialy started , and organised a lot of raid on french britany coast to capture civilian sailors who finally were deported into "Ponton" (do not know the english word). 

The official reason of this treachery was the fear from british admiralty to see the french navy to grow as strong as in the previous war, and the purpose to deplete quickly the potentials french sailor in the Navy 

 

3. US independance war (1780 french involvement) ... another brit naval defeat (french lost some battles , won a lot more), with 1v1 engagements turning in favor of the frenchs. 

read about Suffen in indies for example ...  

4. Revolution and napoleonic wars : French ultimate and crushing naval defeat , ... pretty obvious when the governement decimated and exiled most of the officer corps. 

sadly the most documentated fights are the ones of revolutions wars, and few archives are left from fights from earlier in 18th century, exept the major naval battles. 

Thing is a lot of the 1v1 victory of the french were not achieved by Royal officers, but by privateers. There were a lot of grey zone ships : "King's ship, sailed by captain under royal comission, but as privateer for private investors"

Overall, I will not deny the Brits dominated the seas during the 18th century. Saying brits beated the french for over a century seem quite exagerated 

EDIT : Sorry, I was a little too fast to draw my sword in defense of my country, .... You specifically said in 1v1 combat. And I can agree on this ... but like I said a lot of fights from earlier in 18th century are not well documented 

Edited October 21, 2016 by Sire Trinkof

[maturin]

LOL ... read history a little bit more please : 

after Louis the XIV and spain succession wars, there were 4 wars between french and british : 

1. Austrian succession war 1748  : considered an humiliation for british navy, on a more "rational" point of view, a draw on the seas, with some major french victories

2. Seven year war 1754 : Disaster for the french on the seas (and land) , mainly because of the "treacherous" war declaration : birt ceased and captured a lot of french ships before the war officialy started , and organised a lot of raid on french britany coast to capture civilian sailors who finally were deported into "Ponton" (do not know the english word). 

The official reason of this treachery was the fear from british admiralty to see the french navy to grow as strong as in the previous war. 

 

3. US independance war (1780 french involvement) ... another brit naval defeat (french lost some battles , won a lot more), with 1v1 engagements turning in favor of the frenchs. 

read about Suffen for example ...  

4. Revolution and napoleonic wars : French ultimate and crushing naval defeat , ... pretty obvious when the governement decimated and exiled most of the officer corps. 

sadly the most documentated fights are the ones of revolutions wars, and few archives are left from fights from earlier in 18th century, exept the major naval battles. 

Read post, please.

 

I was talking about single-ship actions where the loser put up a fight.

 

Although since you bring up the subject, the French never destroyed a British battlefleet in the entire period. Just some strategic victories that the Royal Navy would have regarded as a disappointing stalemate.

 

For example, Suffren never managed to actually take a British ship of the line in any of his victories. The definition of victory is very different for the French and English.

[Kameradenschwein]

And the OP question wasn't about duels...

sure... but we see a surge of captures during the Revolution as it became easier...

For example 1793:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_captured_in_the_18th_century

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_captured_in_the_19th_century

 

Those 2 lists are really interesting to look at.

I had a quick look at theses lists -  maybe I really got a "wrong" or "onesided" impression, there are also a lot of british ships - looks like caputre was not such a rare thing that would happen

[frankling]

Many British warships ships were captured, many of them smaller types, Brigs and so on.

 

But war is war and These things happen, many will tell you that a French warship was better built than a British one, so that's one reason the British navy kept captured French warships and used them. 

 

The blockades were one way to keep the very good French ships from coming out.

 

History will be looked at very different when you are from another country.

 

But as has been said, the British Navy did manage to keep the sea's in there hands, with out that they would not have survived.

 

Good day Gentlemen.

[maturin]

I had a quick look at theses lists -  maybe I really got a "wrong" or "onesided" impression, there are also a lot of british ships - looks like caputre was not such a rare thing that would happen

Of merchant ships and lopsided encounters that didn't result in a fight, certainly.

 

Very difficult to find scenarios where the French were able to overcome British ships of roughly equal force.

 

Here's an interesting French victory in a frigate duel, however: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Milan_(1805)

 

I suspect that most French victories in single ship combat were cases of privateers attacking British warships, especially early in the 18th century when records weren't as good.