HMS Madagascar (1811)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Néréide and HMS Madagascar.

HMS Madagascar

Néréide at the action of 20 May 1811 (leftmost ship)
History
France
Name	Néréide
Namesake	Nereid
Ordered	28 December 1805
Builder	Saint Malo
Laid down	March 1806
Launched	18 April 1809
Captured	26 May 1811
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Madagascar
Acquired	26 May 1811
Fate	Broken up 1819
General characteristics
Displacement	1,400 tons (French)
Tons burthen	1,113 90⁄94 (bm)
Propulsion	Sail
Complement	330–340
Armament	French service UD: 28 × 18-pounder guns Spardeck: 8 × 8-pounder guns + 8 × 36-pounder carronades
Armour	Timber

HMS Madagascar was a 38-gun Piémontaise-class frigate originally of the French Navy. Her French name had been Néréide, and she had been built to a design by François Pestel.

In 1810 as Néréide, she sailed to Guadeloupe but was repelled by the blockade off Basse-Terre, and returned to Brest after a fight with HMS Rainbow and HMS Avon.

The British captured Néréide during the action of 20 May 1811, and commissioned her into the Royal Navy as HMS Madagascar.

She took part in the Peninsular War against France, and the War of 1812 with the United States.

Madagascar, Vengeur, and Lightning were in company on 6 March 1814 at the recapture of Diamond.^{[Note 1]} Shortly thereafter, Captain Bentinck Cavendish Doyle of Lightning transferred to take command of Madagascar.

In June 1814, Madagascar served in a flotilla under the command of Admiral Lord Cochrane, and carried General William Miller and his troops from Bordeaux to the Chesapeake Bay to reinforce General Ross in the War of 1812.¹

Notes

1. A first-class share for Diamond was worth £59 3s 3+1⁄2d; a sixth-class share was worth 10s 3+3⁄4d.^[1]

Citations

1. "No. 16945". The London Gazette. 12 April 1814. p. 2040.

References

• Crawford, Michael J. (Ed) (2002). The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, Vol. 3. Washington: United States Department of Defense. ISBN 9780160512247
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671–1870. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• address to the Royal Artillery Historical Society 2003 Autumn Meeting by Mr Thomas Hudson, OBE, MA, 17 September 2003, at Woolwich, England.
• HMS Madagascar Archived 28 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Naval database

External links

• Media related to HMS Madagascar (ship, 1811) at Wikimedia Commons