Coog
08-20-2012, 09:29
On 20 August 1800 the frigate HMS Seine, under the command of Captain David Milne, attacked the French frigate Vengeance in the Mona Passage. Both ships sustained heavy casualties; 13 crew were killed aboard Seine, 29 were wounded, and the ship was cut up. Vengeance, under Capitaine de Vaisseau François Pitot, sustained worse damage and surrendered after about an hour and a half of hard fighting. One source estimates that Vengeance suffered some 35 men killed and some 70 wounded before she struck.
At the time of her capture Vengeance was armed with twenty-eight 18-pounders on her main deck, sixteen 12-pounders and eight 42-pounder carronades on her Quarter-deck and Forecastle, brass swivel guns on the gunwale, and shifting guns on the main and quarter decks. All these measures were in French pounds. Seine was armed with eighteen 18-pounders on her main deck and twelve 9-pounders on her Quarter-deck and Forecastle. In English measures the broadsides in this case were 498 pounds for Seine and 434 for Vengeance. Crew sizes were 281 men and 326 men, respectively. Troude attributes to Vengeance an armament of 26 18-pounders, 10 8-pounders and 4 36-pounder caronades, totalling a broadside of 346 pounds.
The naval historian William James subsequently exaggerated the engagement in favor of the French. He declared that as Seine had done what Constellation could not, British naval forces were "more potent than American thunder". In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Seine 20 Augt. 1800" to any surviving crew members of Seine that came forward to claim it.
At the time of her capture Vengeance was armed with twenty-eight 18-pounders on her main deck, sixteen 12-pounders and eight 42-pounder carronades on her Quarter-deck and Forecastle, brass swivel guns on the gunwale, and shifting guns on the main and quarter decks. All these measures were in French pounds. Seine was armed with eighteen 18-pounders on her main deck and twelve 9-pounders on her Quarter-deck and Forecastle. In English measures the broadsides in this case were 498 pounds for Seine and 434 for Vengeance. Crew sizes were 281 men and 326 men, respectively. Troude attributes to Vengeance an armament of 26 18-pounders, 10 8-pounders and 4 36-pounder caronades, totalling a broadside of 346 pounds.
The naval historian William James subsequently exaggerated the engagement in favor of the French. He declared that as Seine had done what Constellation could not, British naval forces were "more potent than American thunder". In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Seine 20 Augt. 1800" to any surviving crew members of Seine that came forward to claim it.