Coog
06-26-2012, 06:34
On the morning of 26 June 1799, the 24-gun HMS Champion sighted a brig taking possession of two merchant vessels. Champion immediately set out in pursuit; three days and two nights later she captured the privateer brig. She turned out to be the 16-gun Anacréon, out of Dunkirk. She had a complement of 125 men under the command of Citizen Blankeman, though 74 of her complement were away in prizes that she had already taken on her then current cruise. Captain Graham Eden Hammond of Champion described her as "almost a new Vessel, sails remarkably fast, is Copper-bottomed, and seems fit for His Majesty's Service." The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Anacreon.