She was therefore ordered to Spithead, and from thence to the West Indies[1].
Le Bourdelois sailed from England at the close of 1800, under the orders of the Andromache frigate, Captain Bradby, and in company with a fleet of merchantmen. The convoy being dispersed in a gale of wind off Cape Finisterre, Captain Manby proceeded to the rendezvous at Madeira; from whence he was despatched by the commodore, to keep a look out for the scattered ships, one hundred leagues to windward of Barbadoes. On his way to that station, he re-captured two of the stragglers, which had been taken by a French privateer[2]; and on the 28th Jan. 1801, he had the good fortune to discover two large brigs and a schooner, which had been sent from Cayenne by Victor Hugues, to intercept the West India fleet. These vessels were first seen at noon, and being to windward, Captain Manby brought them down by stra-
- ↑ Le Bourdelois had formerly been a French privateer, belonging to Bourdeaux. She was pierced for 26 guns, and at the time of her capture, mounted 16 long brass 12-pounders, and 8 brass 36-pr. carronades, on a flush deck, with a complement of 202 men. Her extreme length was one hundred and forty-nine feet. In form she was like a dolphin; but although the most beautiful model ever seen, many of Captain Manby’s brother officers considered her the most dangerous vessel in the service, and were therefore induced to call her the coffin. Sir Edward Pellew, now Viscount Exnouth, viewing her one day as she lay alongside the Jetty at Plymouth dock-yard, gave this advice to her commander: “Whenever you are in a gale of wind, stanchion up your main-deck fore and aft; for should a heavy sea break on board, she will go down like a stone, as her frame is very weak, and she has no beam to support it.” This precaution was always taken, and le Bourdelois survived; but two sloops of war, the Railleur and Trompeuse, of the same build, but smaller, both went to the bottom in a gale off Brest, May 16, 1807, and every person on board them perished. Had the above measure been adopted, most probably they would not have foundered. Le Bourdelois was taken by the Revolutionnaire frigate, Oct. 11, 1799, after a chase of 114 miles in nine hours and a half. She was at this time on her second cruise, and had previously outsailed all her pursuers. At the termination of her first trip, during which she took twenty=nine valuable prizes, her owners gave a splendid dinner to her officers; and upon their relating how often she had been chased, her builder being present said “England has not a cruiser that will ever touch her except the Revolutionaire; and should she ever fall in with that frigate in blowing weather, and be under her lee, she will be taken.” This actually occurred on her second cruise. The same builder constructed both vessels.
- ↑ See Captain Robert Barrie, C.B.
