French privateer Bellone (1745)

For other ships with the same name, see French privateer Bellone and HMS Bellona.

HMS Bellona (left) captures the Duc de Chartres, 18 August 1747, by Dominic Serres
History
France
Name	Bellone
Namesake	Bellona (goddess)
Builder	Nantes
Laid down	1744
Launched	January 1745
Fate	Captured in 1747
Great Britain
Name	HMS Bellona
Acquired	1747
Commissioned	May 1747
Fate	Sold in 1749
General characteristics
Propulsion	Sail
Sail plan	ship-rigged

Bellone, was a French privateer. Bellone was involved in a naval battle in Loch nan Uamh during the Jacobite rising. She was captured in 1747. She was taken into Royal Navy service as HMS Bellona and was sold in 1749.

French service

Following the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746, Bellone and Mars anchored at Loch nan Uamh on 30 April 1746.^[1]

Upon the approach of the Royal Navy vessels HMS Greyhound, HMS Baltimore, and HMS Terror, Captain Claude Lory of La Bellone set sail; Captain Antoine Rouillé of Le Mars decided to stay at anchor.^[1] After Greyhound attacked Le Mars, La Bellone engaged HMS Greyhound and Bellone suffered a broken mast after a broadside.^[1] HMS Greyhound attempted to board LA Bellone, however after firing two broadsides into HMS Greyhound, La Bellone then disabled HMS Terror with a volley.^[1] La Bellone led Le Mars out into the head of Loch nan Uamh where Le Mars started her repairs, while La Bellone engaged the British ships.^[1] HMS Baltimore, HMS Greyhound, and HMS Terror tried to board the French ships, but were again repelled, HMS Baltimore's captain sustaining a head wound. La Bellone had her rigging shattered and lost an anchor and two of her masts.^[1] The damaged HMS Baltimore then headed for The Minch to get help while La Bellone again engaged HMS Greyhound, causing damage to her main mast and setting fire to her hand grenades.^[1]

Three Royal Navy ships - HMS Nottingham, Eagle, and Warspite – captured Bellone on 2 February 1747.^[2]

English service

Bellona was commissioned in May 1747, under the command of Captain Samuel Barrington, who took the Duke de Chartres an outbound Indiaman that same year on 17 August 1747.^[3][4]

She was sold in 1749 at Deptford for £611.^[5][6][7]

Duc de Chartres 700 tun taken by the Hon, Cn Barrington in the Bellona' 18 August 1747

References

1. McKerracher, Mairead. (2012). Jacobite Dictionary. (no page numbers). Neil Wilson Publishing.
2. Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. p. 224. ISBN 9781783469253.
3. "VII. The Venus: Letters." The Barrington Papers, Vol. 77. Ed. D Bonner-Smith. London: Navy Record Society, 1937. 391-411. British History Online Retrieved 8 December 2022.
4. Toone, William (1826). The Chronological Historian, Or, A Record of Public Events: Historical, Political, Biographical, Literary, Domestic and Miscellaneous; Principally Illustrative of the Ecclesiastical, Civil, Naval and Military History of Great Britain and Its Dependencies, from the Invasion of Julius Cæsar to the Present Time. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green.
5. "Page 2 | Issue 8670, 25 August 1747 | London Gazette | the Gazette".
6. Toone, William (1826). "The Chronological Historian, or, A Record of Public Events: Historical, Political, Biographical, Literary, Domestic and Miscellaneous; Principally Illustrative of the Ecclesiastical, Civil, Naval and Military History of Great Britain and Its Dependencies, from the Invasion of Julius Cæsar to the Present Time".
7. "French Merchant east indiaman 'Le Duc de Chartres' (1738)".

Further reading

• Duffy, Christopher (2017). The '45: Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Untold Story of the Jacobite Rising. Phoenix. ISBN 9780753822623.
• Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.