HMS Actif (1794)

History
Name:	Active
Launched:	c.1789
Captured:	21 May 1793
France
Name:	Actif
Acquired:	21 May 1793 by capture
Captured:	16 March 1794
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Actif
Acquired:	By capture 1794
Fate:	Foundered 1794
General characteristics [1][2]
Type:	sloop
Displacement:	c.150 tons (French)[3]
Tons burthen:	165, or 100[2] (bm)
Complement:	British privateer:40 Royal Navy service:60
Armament:	British privateer:12 × 4-pounder guns + 4 × swivel guns French privateer: 6 to 16 guns;[3] Royal Navy service:10 × 4-pounder guns

HMS Actif was the British privateer Active that the French captured in 1793 and that became the French privateer Actif. Iphigenia recaptured Actif on 16 March 1794. The Royal Navy took her into service but she foundered on 26 November. Fortunately though, all her crew were saved.

British privateer

Active was a Liverpool privateer launched c. 1789.^[4] She was under the command of Captain Stephen Bower (or Bowers), and was sailing under a letter of marque dated 2 May 1793.^[2] The French frigate Sémillante captured her on 21 May 1793.^[1] At capture, Active was armed with eleven guns and three howitzers.^[3]

French service

On 16 March 1794 Iphigenia captured both Actif and Espiegle in the West Indies.^{[5][Note 1]}

Royal Navy service and loss

The Royal Navy registered Actif as a sloop on 17 July. However, already by 4 June she was on active service with the Royal Navy, participating in the capture of Port-au-Prince.^[6] Commander John Harvey became her captain on 5 September.^[7]

Harvey was sailing Actif to England when by 24 November she developed leaks while off Bermuda. Even with the crew working the pumps continuously, she took on so much water as her structure weakened that on the 26th she had to make distress signals. HMS St Albans came up and rescued Harvey and his crew. The rescuers left her to founder at 30°9′N 76°58′W / 30.150°N 76.967°W.^[8]

Notes, Citations, and references

Notes

1. One account has it that the British sent Active/Actif into Guernsey.^[4] This seems improbable, or suggests that there may be a confusion of vessels.

Citations

1. Winfield (2008), p.336.
2. Letter of Marque - accessed 15 May 2011.
3. Demerliac (2004), n° 603, p. 98.
4. Williams (1897), p.314.
5. Norie (1842), p.406.
6. The London Gazette: no. 15133. p. 465. 14 May 1799.
7. Leslie (1891), Vol. 25, p.91.
8. Hepper (1994), p.77.

References

• Demerliac, Alain (2004). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 A 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 2-906381-24-1.
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
• Leslie, Sir Stephen (1891) Dictionary of National Biography. (Smith, Elder).
• Norie, J. W. (1842) The naval gazetteer, biographer and chronologist; containing a history of the late wars from ... 1793 to ... 1801; and from ... 1803 to 1815, and continued, as to the biographical part to the present time. (London, C. Wilson).
• Williams, Gomer (1897; since republished) History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque: With an Account of the Liverpool Slave Trade. (W. Heinemann).
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.
• Winfield, Rif & Stephen S Roberts (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786 - 1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. (Seaforth Publishing). ISBN 9781848322042