HMS Belleisle (1761)
Belleisle was the French East Indiaman Bertin, launched in 1760 that the British Royal Navy captured in 1761 and commissioned as the third rate HMS Belleisle.
![]() Plan of Belleisle drawn in 1761, a captured French East Indiaman, prior to being fitted as a 64-gun third rate, two-decker. | |
History | |
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Name: | Belleisle |
Launched: | 1760 |
Captured: | 3 April 1761, by Royal Navy |
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Name: | HMS Belleisle |
Acquired: | 3 April 1761 |
Fate: | Sold, 1819 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type: | 64-gun third-rate ship of the line |
Tons burthen: | 149426⁄94 (bm) |
Length: | 168 ft 5 1⁄2 in (51.3 m) (gundeck) |
Beam: | 45 ft 0 1⁄2 in (13.7 m) |
Depth of hold: | 20 ft 7 in (6.27 m) |
Propulsion: | Sails |
Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
Armament: | 64 guns of various weights of shot |
Capture
HMS Hero and HMS Venus captured Bertin on 3 April 1761 and sent her into Plymouth. There the Royal Navy purchased her.[1] (The prize crew from Hero shared in the proceeds of Venus and Hero's capture of the French privateer Lyon on 6 April 1761.)[2]
Career
Belleisle was fitted in August 1761 and fitted in 1762.[1] She shared in the prize money awarded to the British squadron that captured the French East Indiaman St Priest on 11 March 1762.[3] Belleisle was paid off in July 1763.[1]
She was fitted as a guard ship at Plymouth in January 1764, and then as a troopship in May 1765 and again in March 1768. Between March 1771 amd April 1772 she underwent a small to middling repair at Plymouth.[1]
Between August 1776 and January 1777, she again underwent fitting as a guard ship. She was refitted between December 1777 and February 1778. She twice underwent fitting at Plymouth for the East Indies in April to June 1778 and in February 1779.[1]
Between March and June 1772 she was at Chatham, receiving an all-carronade armament and the masts of a 60-gun ship. She was paid off in March 1783.[1]
Fate
Belleisle was converted to a lazarette between August and December 1784. She was later transferred to Customs and struck from the Navy List. She was sold on 3 February 1819.[1]
Citations
- Winfield (2008), p. 103.
- "No. 10221". The London Gazette. 26 June 1762. p. 4.
- "No. 10325". The London Gazette. 25 June 1763. p. 4.
References
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)