French ship Brutus (1780)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Brutus.

Brutus

Capture of Brutus by HMS Mermaid
History
France
Name	Brutus
Namesake	Brutus
Builder	Bordeaux
Launched	1780
Acquired	1793
Renamed	Célère (May 1795)
Fate	Captured October 1795
General characteristics
Displacement	300 tons
Propulsion	Sail
Complement	1793: 136 At capture:50
Armament	1793: 18 × 6-pounder guns At capture:10 guns
Armour	Timber

Brutus was a merchant ship built in 1780 at Bordeaux. She was commissioned as a privateer in 1793 at Bordeaux. However, the French Navy purchased her in September 1793 at Brest and classed her as a corvette. The French Navy later converted her to a brig. HMS Mermaid captured her on 10 October 1795.

Career

The French Navy re-rigged Brutus as a brig at Brest either in 1793 or in May 1795. She carried out two diplomatic missions to the United States during 1794. In February 1794, she arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, with the news of the imminent arrival of a squadron under Van Stabel carrying Joseph Faucher to replace Citoyen Genêt as the French ambassador to the United States to replace Edmond-Charles Genêt. She also brought despatches to Van Stabel. The French had to replace Genêt, whom the French government considered crazy for having tried to instigate a revolution against President Washington. Brutus was under the command of enseigne de vaisseau (later lieutenant de vaisseau) Métaisyer.

Brutus was renamed Célère in May 1795 in France. but was still operating under the name Brutus when Mermaid captured her. She was refitted with a coppered hull and a brig rigging before her naval commission.

Capture

On 10 October 1795 Mermaid was cruising to windward of Grenada when she discovered a ship and a brig anchored off La Baye. As the two vessels sighted Mermaid they got under weigh, but the brig soon bore up and ran into Requin Bay, where Mermaid followed her. The brig ran ashore and all aboard fled. These numbered 50 crew and 70 troops; she had landed another 50 troops when she had been anchored. On taking possession of the brig, the British discovered that she was a French naval vessel named Brutus. Four days later Mermaid captured the ship, which was the 18-gun French corvette Republicaine. Lloyd's List, in reporting the captures, described Brutus as having 18 guns, and Republican as having 10. After both vessels had been condemned at Grenada on 9 November 1795, HMS Zebra shared in the prize money by agreement with Mermaid.

References

• Demerliac, Alain (1999). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 à 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 9782906381247. OCLC 492783890.
• Jackson, Melvin H. (1969). Privateers in Charleston 1794–1796: An account of a French palatinate in South Carolina. SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY NUMBER 1. United States Government Printing Office.
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Vol. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• Williams, Greg H. (2009). The French assault on American shipping, 1793-1813: a history and comprehensive record of merchant marine losses. McFarland. ISBN 9780786438372.
• Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.