French frigate Thétis (1788)

Thétis was a 40-gun Nymphe-class frigate of the French Navy.

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Thétis.

Capture of the Thétis by HMS Amethyst on 10 November 1808, by Thomas Whitcombe
History
France
Name: Thétis
Ordered: 4 November 1786
Builder: Brest
Laid down: September 1785
Launched: 16 June 1788
Captured: 10 November 1808
United Kingdom
Name: Brune[1]
Stricken: 1838
General characteristics
Class and type: Nymphe-class frigate
Displacement: 1,423 tons (French)
Length: 46.9 m (154 ft)
Beam: 11.9 m (39 ft)
Height: 5.8 m (19 ft)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Armament:
  • At capture[2]
  • Gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder (24-pounder English) long guns
  • QD: 12 × 36-pounders (42-pounder English; presumably carronades)
  • Fc: 4 × 8-pounder guns

From 1790, she served in various diplomatic missions in the Indian Ocean, before returning for a refit in Brest in 1793. From 1795, she was shuttled from France to Guadeloupe. She took part in the Invisible Squadron of Zacharie Allemand, before returning to Martinique along with the 16-gun brig Lynx.

On 17 December 1806, Thétis and the brig Sylphe captured HMS Netley. The French sold Netley and she became the privateer Duquesne. Less than nine months later, on 23 September 1807, HMS Blonde captured Dusquesne. (The Chroniques de la Marine Française report that in 1807, Thétis captured an 18-gun brig named Methly.[3] This may be a slightly garbled reference to the capture of Netley, there being no Royal Navy vessel named Methly.)

HMS Amethyst captured Thétis off Lorient in the Action of 10 November 1808.[4] British casualties in the engagement were severe, with 19 killed and 51 wounded, but French losses were several times larger, with 135 dead, including her commander, Capitaine de Vaisseau Jacques Pinsum, and 102 wounded.[2] The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Brune.

Brune was broken up in 1838.

References
  1. HMS Brune, Naval Database
  2. "No. 16201". The London Gazette. 15 November 1808. pp. 1554–1555.
  3. Chroniques de la Marine Française, Fulgence Girard & Jules Lecomte, tome 5, p. 21. Paris, 1837.
  4. "HMS Amethyst and "Thetis"". Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2009.
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