French ship Généreux (1810)

The French ship Généreux was the Portuguese merchantman Ovidor Pereira (or Ouvidor, or Ovidor, or Ovidour, or Oviedor, or Ovideo Pereira) that Entreprenant captured in 1809. The French navy took her into service as Généreux. In 1814 her name became Loire. She was decommissioned at Brest in July 1838 and struck from the lists in August before being broken up.

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Généreux and French ship Loire.

History
Portugal
Name:	Ovidor Pereira
Captured:	October 1809
France
Name:	Généreux
Acquired:	1810 by purchase of a prize
Fate:	Broken up 1838
General characteristics [1]
Displacement:	559 tons unloaded, 900 tons loaded (French)
Length:	37.35 m (122.5 ft)
Beam:	9.74 m (32.0 ft)
Draught:	4.27 m (14.0 ft)
Depth of hold:	4.90 m (16.1 ft)
Complement:	35-135
Armament:	Portuguese: 18 12-pounder guns 1810:12 x 12-pounder guns 1812:6 × 8-pounder + 6 × 4-pounder guns 1814:20 × 8-pounder guns 1827:2 × 6-pounder guns + 10 × 18-pounder carronades
Notes:	Teak-built, with iron bolts and copper sheathing

Portuguese origin and capture

Oviedo Pereira appears in the Calcutta Monthly Journal for March 1803. Captain Vasconcellos departed Calcutta on 20 March, bound for Macao.[2] On 9 March 1809 she brought George Baring, the British East India Company's Commission Agent in China, to Calcutta from Macau, together with his family.[3]

On 20 October 1809, Entreprenant, under the command of Lieutenant de vaisseau Pierre Bouvet, encountered a British convoy and detected an isolated sail that she intercepted by 23:00. The ship was the 18-gun Ovidor, a Portuguese merchant vessel. She surrendered after the first broadside and Bouvet brought her to Île de France with a valuable cargo of Chinese goods, and 200,000 (or 230,000) Piastres. The place of the capture is variously given as the Straits of Malacca, the mouth of those Straits, and Singapore. Oviedo Pereira was returning from Macau with $400,000 in silver, the proceeds of last season's trade.[4] A newspaper mention gives the prize's name as Ovidor Pereira.[5][Note 1]

At the request of the masters and crew of Ovidor Pereira and Mary, another ship that Bouvet had captured, in December he put them on shore at Dutch-controlled Madura Island. They remained there on parole for six months and then received the governor's permission to charter an Arab ketch that took them to Malacca.[6]

French service

The French took Ovidor Pereira into service and September 1810 named her Généreux. Between September and October 1810 she underwent refitting at Île de France.[7] She was recommissioned on there on 5 October.[1]

She then sailed to Rochefort, Charente-Maritime as a cartel, narrowly escaping the British invasion of Île de France in December.[1]

On 2 March 1812 she was recommissioned as a gabarre, with her name being mis-recorded as Généreuse.[1] She was rebuilt in Rochefort from June 1813 to September 1814[7] In August 1814 she was renamed Loire and classified as a flute.[1] She was also provisioned for an eight-month cruise.[7]

On 30 August 1815 Loire was under the command of enseigne de vaisseau Vergos. She transported troops and munitions from Rochefort to Île Bourbon. She then returned to Île-d'Aix Roads with colonial produce.[8]

On 28 December 1816 Loire was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Gicquel-Destouches. He sailed her from Île-d'Aix Roads to Saint-Louis, Senegal, and Gorée, and back.[9]

Between 4 and 29 July 1817 Loire was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Guérin Des Essards. He sailed her from Île-d'Aix Roads to Dunkirk.[10]

Between 27 September and 11 December 1819 Loire was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Robin. He carried Baron de Laussat (governor of French Guiana), and passengers from Île-d'Aix Roads to Guyanne. She then carried the former governor, Lieutenant General Carra-Saint Cyr, passengers, and dispatches from Cayenne to Fort-Royal, Martinique.[11]

Lieutenant de vaisseau Robin commanded Loire from 7 March 1820 to 8 August. On 23 September she was under the command of capitaine de frégate Puis d'Oysonville. She sailed from Basse-Terre to Norfolk. She then carried provisions and wood from Norfolk to Martinique. Next, she carried passengers and dispatches from Saint-Pierre and Basse-Terre to Île-d'Aix Roads. She then transported troops from Rochefort to the Îles du Vent.[12] Loire was refitted again in Rochefort from August to November 1820.[7]

Lieutenant de vaisseau Robin commanded Loire at Lorient between 6 January and 17 February 1821.[13] Between 31 March and 3 April she was again under the command of capitaine de frégate d'Oysonville. He sailed her from Île-d'Aix Roads to Martinique and Basse-Terre, and back.[14]

On 13 November 1821 the French Navy re-classed all its flutes as corvettes-de-charge. However, in December 1822 she was listed as a gabarre.[1]

Loire underwent refits at Brest in November 1827, in March 1832, and again in September 1833.[7]

Fate

Loire was decommissioned at Brest on 1 July 1838 and her crew was transferred to Aube. She was struck from the lists on 8 August and broken up thereafter.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

1. In 1810 Governor Decaen of Île de France had coins struck from the silver captured with Ovidor. These came to be known as Decaen piastres.

Citations

1. Winfield & Roberts (2015), p. 381.
2. Calcutta Monthly Journal (March 1803), p.86.
3. Robert Houghton: A Peoples' History 1793 – 1844 from the newspapers: China. Accessed 21 April 2018.
4. Robert Houghton: A Peoples' History 1793 – 1844 from the newspapers: Prize-taking. Accessed 21 April 2018.
5. London Chronicle, 21 September 1810, Vol. 108, №8076.
6. Smith (2008), p. 73. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFSmith2008 (help)
7. Demerliac (2004), p. 154, n°1272..
8. Fonds Marine, p.499.
9. Fonds Marine, p.505.
10. Fonds Marine, p.510.
11. Fonds Marine, p.527.
12. Fonds Marine, p.537.
13. Fonds Marine, p.545.
14. Fonds Marine, p.547.

References

• Demerliac, Alain (2004). La Marine du Consulat et du Premier Empire: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1800 A 1815 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 2-903179-30-1.
• Fonds Marine. Campagnes (opérations ; divisions et stations navales ; missions diverses). Inventaire de la sous-série Marine BB4. Tome premier : BB4 1 à 482 (1790–1826)
• Smith, F. Andrew (2008) "Daniel Smith’s last seven years: Hardships in country trade in the east indies in the early nineteenth century" Borneo Research Bulletin, Vol. 38, pp.71-90.
• Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.