HMS Artois was a of the Royal Navy, designed by Sir John Henslow and launched in 1794 at Rotherhithe as the lead ship of her class. A fifth-rate ship, she served for the majority of her career in the English Channel under the command of Edmund Nagle in the squadrons of Edward Pellew and John Borlase Warren, notably taking part in the action of 21 October 1794 where she captured the 44-gun frigate La Révolutionnaire almost singlehandedly. She participated in a number of other actions and events including the attempted invasion of France in 1795. Artois continued to serve actively on the coast of France in blockade and patrolling roles, taking a large number of ships as prizes, until she was wrecked with no loss of life off Île de Ré on 31 July 1797 while attempting to reconnoitre the harbour of La Rochelle.
Construction Artois was a fifth-rate 38-gun, 18-pounder, Artois-class frigate designed by Sir John Henslow. She and her class were ordered soon after the start of the French Revolutionary War to provide an influx of modern warships for the Royal Navy.Winfield, British Warships, p. 344 Artois was the name-ship of her class and the first to be laid down; of the nine ships of the class seven, including Artois, were built of oak while the final two were built of fir. Artois was an improvement on the 18-pounder frigates of the American Revolutionary War which were found to be too small and that their battery placement made them unstable at sea. To counter this, Artois and her contemporaries built in the 1790s were lengthened forwards to make them faster and more stable. The extra space provided by this expansion made the ships faster but did not stop the issue of violent pitching, which would not be fixed until HMS Active was launched as an improvement to the Artois-class in 1799.Gardiner, Heavy Frigate, pp. 54-5 Despite this, the class would go on to gain a reputation as 'crack frigates'. They were perfect for their assigned role as frigates on blockade duties, being large enough to fight any French frigate sent to attack them while on station but also fast enough and weatherly enough to be able to stay at their posts no matter the weather type.Gardiner, Heavy Frigate, p. 56
Artois was ordered on 28 March 1793 to be built at Rotherhithe by John and William Wells of Wells & Co. She was laid down in the same month and launched on 3 January 1794 with the following dimensions: along the gun deck, at the keel, with a beam of and a depth in the hold of . She measured 996 tons burthen. The fitting out process for Artois was completed at Deptford on 30 March. In January 1794 Captain Lord Charles Fitzgerald of Artois requested to the Admiralty that a bridle port, a square porthole in the bow that a gun could be placed in, be fitted to assist in chasing ships, however it was deemed unfeasible to fit one on a ship designed without it.Gardiner, Heavy Frigate, p. 76 On 19 November eight 32-pound carronades were added to the Artois-class ships by Admiralty Order, leading some to describe them as 44-gun frigates in the future.Gardiner, Heavy Frigate, p. 33 On 20 June 1796 another Admiralty Order saw the ship's crew complement increase from 270 to 284.
Service 1794 Artois was commissioned under Captain Lord Charles Fitzgerald in December 1793 to serve on the Cork Station. After this Captain Edmund Nagle took command of Artois, but was absent at the beginning of her service, with two temporary captains standing in for him.Wareham, Frigate Captains, p. 178 In April 1794 Artois served at the siege of Bastia under the command of Captain Thomas Byam Martin, where the ships of Admiral Lord Hood's Mediterranean Fleet starved the French garrison out of Bastia.Heathcote, British Admirals of the Fleet, p. 167 Artois then moved to the English Channel where she was to serve in the Brest blockade squadron of Commodore John Borlase Warren; for a brief period of time she was then commanded by Commander George Byng before Nagle returned to take command of Artois.Phillips, Artois (38) (1794). Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 24 April 2021.Marshall, Royal Naval Biography, pp. 655-6 She would spend the majority of her career stationed with the squadron in and around Audierne Bay.Clarke and McArthur, Naval Chronicle, p. 342
Le Volontaire
On 23 August Artois took part in the destruction of the 36-gun frigate Le Volontaire on the Penmarks. The frigate was discovered early in the morning by Warren's squadron comprising Artois and the frigates HMS Arethusa, HMS Diamond, HMS Flora, HMS Diana, and HMS Santa Margarita.Clowes, Royal Navy, p. 486 The British ships had left Falmouth on 7 August with the intent of hunting a squadron of French frigates known to be around the Isles of Scilly, but found Le Volontaire off Brittany instead.James, Naval History vol. 1, p. 233 Le Volontaire was forced by the squadron to anchor off the coast to avoid wrecking, and the British ships attacked her to such a degree that she was forced to cut her cables in an attempt to change her positioning. In doing so La Volontaire was driven ashore and after her pumps failed to remove the incoming water her crew abandoned her. The frigate was unrecoverable and stayed there in its disabled state. The same British ships then discovered the 12-gun brig L'Alerte and 18-gun corvette Espion in the nearby Audierne Bay. The two French ships ran themselves aground under the cover of three batteries of guns. They were then boarded by boats from the squadron and fifty-two prisoners were brought off them; the ships also had a large number of men with injuries that made them unmovable, which meant that the British were not able to destroy the ships, instead leaving them and the wounded where they had grounded.Clowes, Royal Navy, pp. 486-7 The following night the French succeeded in rescuing Espion, but L'Alerte was lost.Clowes, Royal Navy, p. 487 On 26 August the ships Queen and Donna Maria were recaptured by the squadron in the same area. The squadron continued its patrols, taking the cutter La Quartidi on 7 September and recapturing the Swedish brig Haesingeland on 16 September.
La Révolutionnaire
By October Artois was serving in the squadron of Edward Pellew. On 21 October the squadron, comprising Artois, Arethusa, Diamond, and the frigate HMS Galatea, encountered the French 44-gun frigate La Révolutionnaire sailing off Ushant.Brenton, Naval History vol. 1, p. 223 The squadron chased La Révolutionnaire which looked to avoid the force, but the superior sailing qualities of Artois allowed her to sail ahead of the rest of the squadron and come up with La Révolutionnaire before she could escape.Chamberlain, Napoleonic Prison, p. 24 The squadron then cut La Révolutionnaire off from the coast which she might have sailed towards for assistance, forcing the French frigate to engage Artois.Duncan, British Trident, p. 283 The two frigates fought an engagement of forty minutes in which eight Frenchmen and three Britons were killed, including the lieutenant of marines. Diamond approached the action next and came up behind La Révolutionnaire, threatening to fire into her stern. La Révolutionnaire surrendered to Artois upon the approach of the rest of Pellew's squadron, as the frigate had been launched only a few weeks previously; the raw crew refused to continue fighting and forced the captain to surrender.James, Naval History vol. 1, p. 235Henderson, The Frigates, p. 32 Pellew reported that the intervention of the rest of the squadron had been unnecessary, and that Artois would have succeeded even if she had been completely unsupported. The French frigate was bought into the navy as HMS Révolutionnaire; Captain Nagle was knighted for his conduct against her and his first lieutenant, Robert Dudley Oliver, was promoted to commander.Brenton, Naval History vol. 1, p. 224Urban, Gentleman's Magazine, p. 469James, Naval History vol. 1, p. 236
1795
After this Artois returned to the command of Commodore Warren and his squadron. On 18 February 1795 the squadron of Artois, Galatea, Arethusa, and Warren's frigate HMS Pomone encountered a French convoy of twenty ships protected by the frigate Néréide off Oléron.Duncan, British Trident, p. 334 The squadron pursued the convoy up the Pertuis d'Antioche towards Île-d'Aix; while the tide forced the British to halt the attack before they reached Aix, they captured one ship, three brigs, two luggers, one sloop, and an 8-gun schooner. As well as this ten brigs and a lugger were destroyed; the convoy had been carrying food and clothing for the French military. The squadron was very busy in February and March, and including those taken on 18 February the squadron took the ships Le Pierre, Le Petit Jean, Le Deux Freres, La Liberte, Le Adelaide, L'Aimable, La Coureause, L'Aimable Madelaine, La Pacquebot de Cayenne, and La Biche between 13 February and 2 March. A strange sail was sighted on 15 April by the squadron, and the signal to give chase given; Artois caught her first, proving it to be the 26-gun corvette Le Jean Bart. On 16 April Artois and Galatea similarly took the 16-gun sloop Expedition, which had previously been a British packet ship, and the ship Maria Francis Fidilla off Rochefort, and Artois on her own captured two sloops with cargoes of fish.
Between June and October she participated in the failed French émigré invasion of France at Quiberon. As such Artois was present in the fleet at the Battle of Groix on 23 June, where she shared in the capture of the three French ships-of-the-line Alexander, Formidable, and Tigre, despite not participating directly in the action that occurred when the British and French fleets came upon one another while on separate missions. The British fleet under Lord Bridport had been convoying the invasion force to France, and Artois was part of a force of three ships-of-the-line and six frigates under Warren guarding the fifty-ship convoy conveying the Comte de Puisaye's émigré force of 2,500 men.Clowes, Royal Navy, p. 266Clarke and McArthur, Naval Chronicle, p. 343 The troops were successfully landed on 27 June and Warren's squadron went on to occupy Île d'Yeu, but after a series of reversals against French revolutionary soldiers the entire force was evacuated to England, with Artois and the other ships providing covering fire to the escaping Royalists.Clowes, Royal Navy, pp. 266-7Clarke and McArthur, Naval Chronicle, p. 348
1796