The Impérieuse was a 40-gun Minerve-classfrigate of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1793 and she served first as HMS Imperieuse and then from 1803 as HMS Unite. She became a hospital hulk in 1836 and was broken up in 1858.
In 1788, Impérieuse cruised in the Middle East, and the Aegean Sea the two following years. She performed another cruise off the Middle East before returning to Toulon. On 11 October 1793, Impérieuse was captured off La Spezia by HMS Captain and the Spanish ship of the lineBahama following the Raid on Genoa.
When the Napoleonic Wars began Imperieuse was renamed Unite and returned to service in the Mediterranean. The frigate was under the command of Captain Chaloner Ogle as one of Nelson's scouts, but not present at Trafalgar; instead, she lay dismasted in Lisbon harbour.
Unité, Melpomene and Weazel shared in the capture of the Buona Esperanza on 19 July 1807 and the Bizzaro, on 21 August. The bankruptcy of the prize agents meant that some prize money was not distributed until 21 years later, in 1828.[2] The fourth and final payment for Bizzarro did not occur until July 1850.[Note 1]
Under Captain Patrick CampbellUnite was the first frigate to enter the Adriatic Sea and during the spring of 1808 captured a string of French and Italian gunboats and coastal merchant vessels, notably the 16-gun sister-brigsRonco, Teulié and Nettuno, the first on 2 May 1808 off Cape Promontore, Istria, and then the second two on 1 June 1808 off Zara. Campbell reported no casualties in the capture of Ronco.[4]Teulié lost five men killed and 16 wounded before she struck; Nettuno lost seven killed, two drowned, and 13 wounded.[5] The Royal Navy took all three into service, Ronco under the name HMS Tuscan, Teulié under the name HMS Roman, and Nettuno under the name HMS Cretan.[6]
On 19 May 1810 Unite captured the French privateer Du Guay Trouin of 10 guns and 116 men.[7]
By 1811 Unite was still operating in the Mediterranean, under Captain Chamberlayne.
On 31 March 1811, Unite and Ajax encountered a French squadron comprising the frigates Adrienne and Amélie, and the armed transport French corvette Dromadaire. Ajax captured Dromadaire, while the frigates managed to escape to Portoferraio. Captain Otway of Ajax reported that Dromadaire was frigate-built and sailed remarkably well. Her cargo consisted of 15,000 shot and shells of various sizes and 90 tons of gunpowder.[8] Apparently Napoleon Bonaparte intended them as a present for Hammuda ibn Ali, the Bey of Tunis.[9] Admiral Sir Charles Cotton, commander in chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet, decided to buy her and her stores for the Royal Navy.[8]
HMS Unité (far right) at Sagone Bay, 1 May 1811
On 1 May, Unite participated in the destruction of the French vessels Giraffe, Nourrice, and an armed merchant man sheltering near the island at Sagone, with the help of HMS Pomone and HMS Scout.[10]
Through the summer Unite operated off the mouth of the Tiber and in the autumn she was once again sent to the Adriatic, participating in the action of 29 November 1811 at which she captured the armed storeship Persanne.
On 16 June 1812 boats from Unite, Orlando and Cerberus captured three vessels of from eighty to one hundred tons in the small port of Badisea, near Otranto.[11]
On 9 November 1812 Unite was in sight when Furieuse captured Nebrophonus.[12]
Post-war and fate
The Defence hulk and the Unite convict hospital ship, off Woolwich
By 1815, Unite was back in Britain in reserve at Deptford and she remained there until converted for harbour service in 1832. Between 1841 and 1858, she was used as a prison hulk. The ship was eventually broken up in January 1858 at Chatham Dockyard.
Notes
^A first-class share of the remaining prize money was worth £2 7s 6pence; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 3d.[3]
Citations
^ewadmin (17 May 2014). "A Brief History of the H.M.S. Unite' figurehead". epoxyworks.com. Retrieved 8 November 2023. This figurehead is unique by virtue of its age, being in a small group of figureheads carved before 1800 and still surviving. Figureheads carved before 1800 were generally of lions, dragons or other animals, a fact which might make this figurehead of even greater significance in figurehead history.
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