Proserpine was a 38-gun of the French Navy launched in 1785 that captured on 13 June 1796. The Admiralty commissioned Proserpine into the Royal Navy as the fifth rate, HMS Amelia. She spent 20 years in the Royal Navy, participating in numerous actions in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, capturing a number of prizes, and serving on anti-smuggling and anti-slavery patrols. Her most notable action was her intense and bloody, but inconclusive, fight in 1813 with the French frigate Aréthuse. Amelia was broken up in December 1816.
Construction Proserpine was a built for the French Navy of the Ancien Régime in Brest. Jacques-Noël Sané designed her as well as five sister ships and she was rated for thirty-eight guns.
French naval service (1785–1796) Proserpine was stationed at Saint Domingue from 1786 until 1788. In 1792, she was under Ensign Van Stabel. From 1793, she served as a commerce raider under Captain Jean-Baptiste Perrée, notably capturing the 32-gun Dutch frigate Vigilante and several merchantmen of a convoy that Vigilante was escorting.
On 23 June 1795, under Captain Daugier, Proserpine took part in the Battle of Groix as the flagship of Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse. She unsuccessfully attempted to regroup the French fleet, almost colliding with the in the process. Proserpine then fired a broadside at the approaching British fleet before she escaped.
Almost a year later, on 13 June 1796, about south of Cape Clear, Ireland, the frigate , under the command of Captain Lord Amelius Beauclerk, captured Proserpine following a relatively brief chase but a bitter action. In the engagement, Proserpine, under the command of Citizen Pevrieu, lost 30 men killed and 45 wounded out of her crew of 348 men. Dryad had two men killed and seven wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Dryad 13 June 1796" to all surviving claimants from the action.
As the Royal Navy already had a , the Admiralty renamed the captured vessel HMS Amelia after Princess Amelia, the youngest daughter of George III. The Royal Navy classified her as a fifth rate of a nominal thirty-eight guns. The deckObject ZAZ2261, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London and sheer and profileObject ZAZ2260, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London plans made following survey at Plymouth in 1797 are now in the National Maritime Museum.
British service Captain Charles Herbert commissioned Amelia in August 1797 for service in the Channel.
Battle of Tory Island (1798)
She joined and on 18 September 1798 blockading the French Brest Squadron, preventing them sailing for Ireland to support the Irish Rebellion with troops. During the night of 11 – 12 October Commodore, Sir John Borlase Warren made the signal for a general chase. Commodore Warren's squadron engaged the French squadron, and captured the Hoche (74 guns) and the frigates , and . In doing so, the British also captured Wolfe Tone, the leader of the United Irishmen. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the surviving claimants from the battle the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "12th October 1798".
Channel blockade (1798–1802) On 31 January 1799, while at anchor in the Hamoaze, broke free from her moorings and struck the Amelia. Fortunately both ships had struck their topmasts and damage was light. Amelia was able to sail on 4 February.Naval Chronicle, Vol. 1, p.253.
On 9 April, after reconnoitring two French frigates in Lorient, and Amelia sailed towards Belle Île in very hazy weather. Here three French frigates and a large gun vessel hiding against the coast surprised them. At that instant a sudden squall carried away Amelias main-top-mast and fore and mizzen top-gallant masts; the fall of the former tore much of the mainsail from the yard. Captain Neale of San Fiorenzo shortened sail and ordered Amelia to bear up with him to maintain the weather gage and prepare for battle. The enemy showed no inclination for close-quarter action, and although the British ships came under fire from shore batteries, they had to bear down on the French three times to engage them. After nearly two hours the French wore ship and stood away to take refuge in the river Loire. From a captured French ship they learned later that the French frigates were , , and . Amelia lost 2 killed and 17 wounded.
On 29 August 1800, in Vigo Bay, Admiral Sir Samuel Hood assembled a cutting-out party from the vessels under his command consisting of two boats each from Amelia, , , and Cynthia, four boats from , as well as the boats from , and Impetueux The party went in and after a 15-minute fight captured the French privateer Guêpe, of Bordeaux and towed her out. She was of 300 tons burthen and had a flush deck. Pierced for 20 guns, she carried eighteen 9-pounders, and she and her crew of 161 men were under the command of Citizen Dupan. In the attack she lost 25 men killed, including Dupan, and 40 wounded. British casualties amounted to four killed, 23 wounded and one missing. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "29 Aug. Boat Service 1800" to all surviving claimants from the action.
During a dark and stormy night on 5 February 1801 Amelia captured the French privateer brig Juste of St Malo. It was so dark that the two vessels did not see each other until the brig ran into the Amelia, which cost the brig her foremast and bowsprit. Juste, with 14 guns and 78 men under the command of Jean Pierre Charlet, had been out from Lorient for 30 days without making a capture. A prize crew brought Juste into Plymouth on 10 February, and Amelia returned on 21 February.
On 10 May Amelia had just anchored close to the mouth of the Loire when she saw a brig sailing into the river. As soon as the privateer spotted Amelia she tacked with all sail. As evening was approaching, Captain Charles Herbert immediately set off in pursuit, capturing the brig after a chase of four hours. She was the privateer Heureux of Saint Malo, with 14 guns and 78 men. She had been cruising for 41 days but had made no captures. She was uncoppered due to the shortage of that material and this possibly resulted in her being slower than she otherwise might have been. Amelia sent Heureux into Plymouth, where she arrived on 17 May.
On 23 June Amelia took bullocks out to the Channel Fleet.Naval Chronicle, Vol. 5, p.537. This was a common occurrence, with the Victualing Office using warships returning to the blockade to deliver meat on the hoof.
At the end of June, Amelia sailed to Rochefort to reconnoitre the enemy. Medusa (50 guns), together with an unidentified 44-gun ship and an armed schooner, came out to oppose her. A smart action ensued in full view of the spectators lining the cliffs. Although the Embuscade (32 guns) sailed out to assist them, the enemy retired under the protection of the shore batteries after an hour. Captain Herbert lay to, but they declined to come out again, so he sailed to join Sir Edward Pellew.
Next, on 4 August, a Spanish packet came into Plymouth. Amelia had captured the packet as she was on her way from Havana to Ferrol with a cargo of sugar, coffee and hides. The packet was armed with six guns and had a crew of 40 men.Naval Chronicle, Vol. 6, p.166.
On 8 August the hired armed cutter captured two French brigs. Amelia shared in the prize money.
In September Amelia captured a number of coasters and brigs in the Bay of Biscay. One of them, the brig Cheodore, laden with sardines, arrived in Plymouth on 27 September, together with another brig in ballast. Shortly after, a seaman from Amelia died in the Royal Naval Hospital after being wounded by a loaded musket that went off as the armourer was cleaning it. At the inquest, on 19 October, Mr Whitford, the coroner for Devon recorded a verdict of accidental death. Two more men were wounded but recovered and a third man, who was killed on the spot, was buried at sea.
Anti-smuggling service and the Peace of Amiens (1802–1803) On 6 January 1802 Amelia was ordered to be victualed for 4 months, and 21 days later she sailed on a cruise against smugglers. During the night of 1 March some words passed between the boat's crew of Amelia and some Portuguese seamen at the Pier Head, Barbican, Plymouth. A violent scuffle ensued that developed into a battle; during the conflict one of the Portuguese drew a long knife and stabbed one of Amelia's men in the groin. He bled profusely but a surgeon managed to stop the flow. The Portuguese fled but were rounded up the following morning.
In April 1802 Captain Lord Proby took command. On 6 May Amelia sailed from Plymouth for Cork, Waterford and Dublin with 150 discharged seamen, returning on 28 May. Orders came down from London on 11 June that all the sloops and frigates in the Sound were to be sent to sea immediately as the coast from Berry Head to Mount's Bay was infested with smugglers. Amelia, , , and were immediately victualled for two months. By the end of August 1802, Amelia had sailed for Den Helder with Dutch troops discharged from the British service. She returned on 4 September.
1803 saw Amelia based mainly at Portsmouth. She arrived there from the Downs on 27 March and sailed on 1 April with part of the 83rd (County of Dublin) Regiment of Foot for Jersey. She was back on 8 April and sailed again for the Downs on the 15th.
In May she was part of the squadron under Rear Admiral Edward Thornbrough in , keeping watch over Hellevoetsluis, Flushing, Netherlands and other Dutch ports. Amelia sent a French chasse-marée in ballast into Plymouth on 23 May. A month later, on 25 June, Amelia, , , and captured sundry Dutch fishing boats.
On 11 August Amelia sent the French privateer lugger Alerte, of 4 guns and 27 men, into Portsmouth. She chased two others in mid-channel before returning on 16 August. She sailed again on a cruise two days later. The extent of her success against smugglers is hard to judge. On 14 August she did catch at sea one Henry Sothcott (born 1774), who was sentenced to 5 years pressed into the Navy for smuggling; he jumped ship within seven months.
West Indies (1804–1807) Amelia deployed to the Leeward Islands Station, but her captain, Lord Proby, died on 6 August 1804 at age 25 at Surinam, from yellow fever. Captain William Charles Fahie took command while the ship was in Barbados. In December she captured the Spanish brig Isabella and the ship Conception, both laden with wine and brandy, and the ship Commerce, laden with cotton. Amelia returned to Deptford and in 1807 refitted at Sheerness.
Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne
December 1807 saw Captain Frederick Paul Irby appointed to her for service in the English Channel and coast of Spain. He sighted three French 44-gun frigates (Calypso, Italienne and Sybille) near Belle Île on 23 February 1809 and Amelia and the brig chased them all night. The following morning they had approached so close to the rearmost French ship that her companions had to haul up to her support. soon came into sight and the French made for the Sables d'Olonne. Rear Admiral Stopford and his squadron, who had been watching eight French sail-of-the-line standing into the Pertuis d'Antioche, came down to join them and stood in with , , , and Amelia. They opened fire, passing as near to the enemy as the depth of water permitted, and forced the frigates to run ashore at the top of high water. Amelia had her bowsprit shot through and she was hulled in several places but had no casualties. The French lost 24 men killed and 51 wounded. The three French frigates survived, but Cybèle was declared irreparable and broken up, while Italienne and Calypso were sold to commerce.
Battle of the Basque Roads (1809)