Vésuve-class gunbrig

The Vésuve class was a class of seven 4-gun gunbrigs (bricks-canonniers).

Plans of Vésuve as surveyed by the British after her capture
Class overview
Name:	Vésuve
Operators:	French Navy  Royal Navy
In commission:	1793-1810
Completed:	7
General characteristics [1]
Class and type:	Vésuve
Type:	gunbrig
Displacement:	80 ton (French)
Length:	22.7 metres
Beam:	6.5 metres
Draught:	2.4 metres
Propulsion:	Sail
Complement:	122-198
Armament:	Design: 4 × 24-pounder long guns French navy: 4 × 18-pounder long guns 6 × 36-pounder brass carronades[Note 1] Royal Navy: Upper deck: 10 × 32–pounder carronades QD:2 × 18-pounder guns
Armour:	Timber

The Royal Navy captured three of the seven vessels in the class and took them into British service.

Vésuve class (7 ships)

• Vésuve [2]

Builder:

Begun: February 1793

Launched: May 1793

Completed: June 1793

Fate: Captured by HMS Melampus and HMS Hebe on 3 July 1795. Commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Vesuve, sold in 1802

• Volage [3]

Builder: Lemarchand, Saint-Malo

Begun: March 1793

Launched: May 1793

Completed: June 1793

Fate: Captured in 1803 by boats from HMS Loire; sold in 1807

• Cruelle[4]

Builder:

Begun:

Launched:

Completed:

Fate:

Notes:

• Foudre[5]

Builder: Saint Malo

Begun: 1793

Launched: January 1794

Completed: February 1794

Fate: Struck in Saint Valéry en Caux in December 1798

Notes: Renamed Fantôme in May 1795

• Hargneuse[6]

Builder: Saint Malo

Begun: 1792

Launched: September 1793

Completed: September 1793

Fate: Decommissioned in Brest in February 1810

Notes: renamed Canonnière n°14 in May 1801

• Protectrice[7]

Builder: Saint Malo

Begun: March 1793

Launched: August 1793

Completed: September 1793

Fate: Decommissioned on 31 March 1807

Notes:

• Vaillante[8]

Builder: Saint Malo

Begun: 1793

Launched: 1793

Completed: June 1793

Fate: Ran aground in combat against Lapwing, then destroyed by gunfire on 29 November 1796

Notes:

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

1. At the time, brass 36-pounder carronades were generally obusiers de vaisseau.

Citations

1. Roche, p. 461, 473
2. Roche, p. 461
3. Roche, p. 473
4. Roche, p. 136
5. Roche, p. 210
6. Roche, p. 237
7. Roche, p. 364-365
8. Roche, p. 454

References

• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours, 1671–1870. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
• Winfield, Rif & Stephen S Roberts (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786 - 1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. (Seaforth Publishing). ISBN 9781848322042