HMS Beaulieu ( ) was a 40-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The ship was laid down in 1790 as a speculative build by the shipwright Henry Adams and purchased by the Royal Navy in June of the same year. Built to the dimensions of a merchant ship, Beaulieu was broader, with more storage capacity, than a standard frigate; though may not have had good sailing qualities. The frigate was commissioned in January 1793 by Lord Northesk and sent to serve on the Leeward Islands Station. She participated in the capture of Martinique in February 1794, and then was similarly present at the capture of the island of Saint Lucia in April. The frigate also took part in the initial stages of the invasion of Guadeloupe. Later in the year the ship's crew was beset by yellow fever and much depleted. Beaulieu was sent to serve on the North America Station to allow them to recuperate, returning to the Leeward Islands in 1795. In the following two years the ship found success in prizetaking and briefly took part in more operations at Saint Lucia. She returned to Britain at the end of 1796.
In 1797 Beaulieu joined the North Sea Fleet, in which she found herself part of the Nore mutiny. Her crew mutinied twice, once in May and once in June, but both attempts were defeated. Four members of the crew were executed for their participation. Beaulieu then fought at the Battle of Camperdown in October, unsuccessfully chasing the escaping Dutch ship of the line Brutus after the battle. After brief service in the Mediterranean Sea Beaulieu began to serve in the English Channel in 1800. By July of the following year she was a part of a frigate squadron based off Brest, France, and the boats of that squadron completed a cutting out expedition capturing the French corvette Chevrette in Camaret Bay.
Beaulieu was put in ordinary for the duration of the Peace of Amiens, but was brought back into service in 1804. The frigate was sent to serve in the Leeward Islands again, re-capturing one British merchant ship before returning home in 1806. She was paid off in March or April of that year, and sent to Deptford Dockyard where she was broken up in 1809.
Design and construction
HMS Beaulieu was a 40-gun, 18-pounder, fifth-rate frigate. Frigates were three-masted, full-rigged ships that carried their main battery on a single, continuous gun deck. They were smaller and faster than ships of the line and primarily intended for raiding, reconnaissance and messaging. Beaulieu was designed and built by the shipwright Henry Adams at his shipyard, Buckler's Hard in Hampshire, during the peace between the American Revolutionary War and French Revolutionary War. There being a slump in ship construction between the wars, the ship was a private venture by Adams to ensure that his workmen were kept in employment. She was the only 18-pounder frigate procured by the Royal Navy during this period and would continue to be a rarity; in 1793 she was one of only eight serving British frigates to have thirty-eight or more guns.
Beaulieu was laid down some time in the first half of 1790, and was purchased by the Royal Navy on 16 June mid-way through construction, after an Admiralty Order was finalised on 2 June as part of the navy's reaction to the Spanish Armament that saw it begin to bolster the fleet. The ship was named by Adams as a compliment to the local landowner Edward Hussey-Montagu, 1st Earl Beaulieu, and this name was kept on by the Royal Navy. In service the crew nicknamed the ship "Bowly".
Beaulieu was launched by Sir Harry Burrard on 4 May 1791. The ship measured along the upper deck, at the keel, with a beam of and a depth in the hold of . Her draught was forward and aft, with the ship measuring 1,019 tons burthen. Beaulieu was fitted out to go in ordinary at Portsmouth Dockyard because the navy was on peacetime mobilisation levels, and this work was completed on 31 May. She stayed in ordinary until the French Revolutionary War began, and was finally fitted for sea on 14 March 1793. Her construction and initial fittings cost a total of £17,788.
While the ship was fitted out to Royal Navy standards after her purchase, the initial design had been down to Adams. As such, Beaulieu was not built in the slim fashion of other frigates, and was instead closer in proportion to a merchant ship of the period. This meant that her hold space was much greater than the average frigate, providing the capacity to store around double the amount of drinking water and ballast. While no official report on Beaulieus sailing survives, her unusual proportions have led the naval historian Robert Gardiner to suggest that it is "unlikely she was much of a sailer".
Beaulieu held forty long guns. The ship was internally laid out in the standard fashion for a 38-gun frigate, but with the addition of two extra gun ports. Twenty-eight 18-pounders were held on the upper deck, with eight 9-pounders on the quarterdeck and a further four on the forecastle. On 20 February 1793 an Admiralty Order had Beaulieu take on a number of carronades, with two 32-pounders on the upper deck and six 18-pounders on the quarterdeck. On 29 December six of the carronades were replaced with newer models, but they were all removed from the ship later on. Beaulieus upper deck had fifteen gun ports on each side, but only fourteen of these were ever put into regular use, with the final pair briefly holding the 1793 carronades but otherwise being left empty.
The ship was designed with a crew complement of 280. On 12 December 1794 the Admiralty reorganised ship complements, taking into account the increased use of carronades, and Beaulieus was lowered to 274 men. This was because carronades were lighter than long guns and required a smaller gun crew to operate. Many captains found this decrease unacceptable and frigate crews were often bolstered, although this is not recorded in Beaulieus case.
Service West Indies
Beaulieu was commissioned in January 1793 by Captain Lord Northesk, under whom she sailed to serve on the Leeward Islands Station on 22 April. At a time when the Royal Navy was bolstering its forces against France and was looking to keep its most powerful frigates close to home, Gardiner posits that the Royal Navy chose not to keep Beaulieu there, although she was one of the larger frigates, because she was "never highly regarded". By November Northesk had been replaced in command by Captain John Salisbury, and Beaulieu formed part of Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis's Leeward Islands fleet; she then captured the French merchant ship America on 31 December.
Jervis was undertaking a campaign to capture the valuable French-held islands in the West Indies, which accounted for a third of all French trade and supported (directly or indirectly) a fifth of the population. The loss of the colonies would have a severe impact on the French economy. On 2 February 1794 Beaulieu sailed from Bridgetown as part of an expedition containing 6,100 troops for the capture of Martinique. They arrived on 5 February and by 16 March all but two fortifications on the island had been successfully captured by the landing forces; seamen were used to move and operate gun batteries and mortars in the fighting. Beaulieu received no casualties during the campaign.
Beaulieu continued on with the expedition which arrived off Saint Lucia on 1 April. The island surrendered on 4 April, and Jervis moved on to invade Guadeloupe, a campaign that would end unsuccessfully in December. In November Salisbury handed command of the ship over to Captain Edward Riou, who brought with him several new officers because Beaulieu had taken severe losses from yellow fever in the previous three months. Beaulieu was then sent to serve on the North America Station temporarily, so that her crew could recover from their illnesses and to bolster the station amid fears that a heavy squadron of French frigates was sailing for Newfoundland.
On 2 December the frigate captured a fast-sailing French 10-gun privateer sloop, which was taken into the island of Barbados. Beaulieu spent her time in North America patrolling off the coast of Virginia, before returning to the Leeward Islands, where she captured the French privateer schooner Spartiate on 14 April 1795. Also under Riou, at an unknown date, Beaulieu encountered a French 18-gun store ship that had grounded herself earlier in the day under the protection of a battery near Saint-François. The frigate sailed up to the French vessel, and Lieutenant Bendall Robert Littlehales boarded her via Beaulieus hawser. He attempted to dislodge the ship from her position, but she would not move, and so he took the crew as prisoners of war and set her on fire. For this Littlehales was promoted to serve in the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Majestic.
Riou was invalided home and replaced by Captain Henry William Bayntun in September, and in turn Captain Francis Laforey took over from him in December of the same year. This quick turnover of captains for Beaulieu continued into 1796; Captain Lancelot Skynner assumed command in March when Laforey was translated into the 64-gun ship of the line HMS Scipio. The frigate, sailing with the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Ganges, captured the French 26-gun ship Marsouin on 11 March off Guadeloupe. Marsouin was later purchased by the Royal Navy but never commissioned for service. With resistance and fighting on Saint Lucia having continued since the initial invasion, Beaulieu participated in further operations there. Towards the end of April the frigate was sent to support landings at Anse La Raye, but these were called off because of bad sea conditions. On 3 May the ship supported an attack by three columns of soldiers against two French batteries, but the endeavour was unsuccessful, and Beaulieu had three men wounded and her foremast damaged.
Beaulieu arrived at the aftermath of an inconclusive duel between the 32-gun frigate HMS Mermaid and the French 40-gun frigate Vengeance off Basseterre on 8 August. Her presence forced the French vessel to disengage and retreat to safety under the guns of a battery in Basseterre Roads. Towards the end of the year Beaulieu returned to Britain, carrying as passengers Rear-Admiral Sir Hugh Christian, who had been replaced as commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands, and Rear-Admiral Charles Pole.
Nore mutiny
Beaulieu received a refit at Plymouth Dockyard between December 1796 and February 1797, at the cost of £7,315. The ship was then present at the capture of the Russian hoy Leyden and Fourcoing by the 18-gun brig-sloop on 8 May, sharing in the capture with the 14-gun sloop HMS Savage. Leyden and Fourcoing had been sailing with a cargo of madder, white lead, and smalt, from Rotterdam to Rouen.
Beaulieu was serving as a guardship in the Downs in May, as part of the Downs Squadron. That month Admiral Adam Duncan's North Sea Fleet mutinied in the Nore mutiny. Despite not being with the fleet, Beaulieus crew mutinied in support on 20 May alongside the 64-gun ship of the line HMS Overyssel. This was instigated by the ship's boatswain, John Redhead, who had recently returned from sick leave, and was based on a feeling of "ill-use" with members of the crew feeling officers were punishing them cruelly for minor offences. The two ships attempted to send petitioners to the Admiralty in London, demanding the removal of unpopular officers and a decrease in the use of flogging, but soldiers posted at Rochester blocked their route on 31 May. Delegates from the mutinying Nore ships visited Beaulieu on 4 June, and it is likely that she conveyed them back to the Nore on the following day.