French frigate Franchise (1797)

In January 1806 Franchise was under the command of Captain Charles Dashwood.[lower-alpha 3] He received information that several Spanish vessels had anchored in the Bay of Campeche and he determined to try to cut them out. On the night of 6 January Franchise arrived some five leagues off the town of Campeche and Dashwood had her anchor in four fathoms as the water was too shallow to come any closer. He then sent in three of Franchise's boats under the command of Lieutenants John Fleming and Peter Douglas, his first and third lieutenants, and Lieutenant Mends of the Marines. Because of the distance they had to row, the British were unable to approach closely until 4am, by which time the moon had risen, they had been spotted, and the Spaniards alerted. The Spanish vessels consisted of two naval brigs, one of 20 guns and 180 men, and another of 12 guns and 90 men, a schooner armed with eight guns, and seven gunboats, each armed with two guns. They opened fire on the approaching row boats and might have destroyed the attack had Lieutenant Fleming not led his three boats to the smaller of the brigs and boarded her. After about ten minutes of hand-to-hand fighting, the British had captured her and were sailing her out, pursued by the other Spanish vessels, which continued to fire on them. The British returned fire from their prize and their boats and the Spanish vessels withdrew.[25]

The captured vessel turned out to be the brig Raposa, pierced for 16 guns but mounting only 12, and also carrying some coehorns, swivel guns, and small arms. She had a crew of 90 men, but her captain, Don Joaquin de la Cheva and most of his officers were ashore, with the result that there were only 75 men on aboard. The Spanish suffered five men killed, not including some who drowned when they jumped overboard, and the senior officer on board and 25 men wounded, many mortally. The British had only seven men wounded. Dashwood sent all the Spanish wounded and prisoners ashore under a flag of truce as they could receive better care there.[25] The British took the corvette into service as HMS Raposa. The Lloyd's Patriotic Fund presented each of the three lieutenants with a sword worth £50, and Midshipman Lamb with a sword worth £30.[26][lower-alpha 4]

Franchise captured the Spanish garda costa schooner Carmen, of one gun and 34 men, on 11 June.[27][28][lower-alpha 5] Eight days later Franchise also captured the Dutch schooner Brutus, of 20 men.[27][28] Douglas served in the boats at the capture of Carmen, and on board that ship he succeeded in making two prizes, and in driving an armed vessel on shore. In December 1807 prize money was announced for "Proceeds of a Quantity of Cocoa, captured in sundry small Spanish Vessels, Names unknown, on the 19th of June."[28]

In July Veteran, Franchise, and Magicienne were escorting a convoy of 109 West Indiamen back to England. The convoy had cleared the Gulf of Florida when it encountered a hurricane. Twenty merchantmen foundered and Magicienne was so damaged that she could not proceed and instead had to put into Bermuda for repairs. Franchise had lost her fore mast and main-top-mast but Dashwood was still able to rally the surviving merchantmen and bring them back to England.[30]

By mid-summer 1807 Franchise had returned to England.[11] She then sailed to the Baltic where she took part in the Battle of Copenhagen.[lower-alpha 6]

By early 1808 Franchise was back in the Channel, still under Dashwood's command. He sailed her for the West Indies on 21 February. Two days later she was 12 leagues south of the Isles of Scilly when she sighted a French lugger privateer hovering around the convoy that Franchise was escorting. The privateer, on capture, turned out to be Hazard, of four guns and a crew of 50, under the command of Francois Blanchet. Hazard was three days out of Granville, Manche, and had not captured anything.[32][lower-alpha 7] Franchise shared the head money with Star.

On 10 November 1808, Franchise, Reindeer, Aurora, Daedalus, and Pert met by chance. The captains got together and decided to capture the town and port of Samaná in order to assist the Spanish patriots that had established a blockade of San Domingo. The town was also the last port of refuge for privateers to the windward of San Domingo and the enemy were in the act of erecting batteries for its protection. The British entered the following day and took possession of the harbour. Captain Charles Dashwood handed Samana over to a Spanish officer, Don Diego de Lira, who guaranteed the safety of the French inhabitants on their plantations.[34]

During the following week the British captured two French 5-gun privateer schooners. One was the Guerrière, Louis Telin, master, with a crew of 104 men; the other was the Exchange, with a crew of 110. The British also took three merchant vessels, the schooner Diana and a brig, both laden with fish, and the sloop Brutus, laden with coffee.[34] Reindeer and Pert went on to recapture two vessels, one of them English, that privateers had taken and were trying to bring into Samana.[34]

Early the next year, on 16 January 1809, Franchise captured the French letter of marque Iphigenie after a chase of 30 hours. She was pierced for 18 guns but only carrying six, all of which, together with her anchors, she had thrown overboard during the chase. She and her crew of 26 were sailing from Bayonne, where she had been launched two months earlier, to Guadeloupe with a cargo of naval stores and provisions, with the intent of taking up privateering once in the West Indies. Dashwood, in the hope that the navy might buy her, described Iphigenie as "... coppered, and sails remarkably fast, having been pursued several Times during her Passage".[35][lower-alpha 8]

Captain John Allen was appointed to replace Dashwood on 17 February 1809. Allen sailed Franchise to Newfoundland on 18 May 1810. On 9 February 1811 Allen sailed her for the Mediterranean.[37]

It was on the way to the Mediterranean on 21 February that a great tragedy occurred. Franchise and her convoy were in Falmouth Roads on a stormy night when she ran into the transport John & Jane, under the command of Captain Grimbsy, almost cutting John & Jane in two. The conditions were too severe to launch boats and the damage to the transport was so complete that almost all aboard her drowned. She was carrying elements of the 11th Regiment of Foot, 197 of whom died, as did 15 women, six children, and six seamen; 20 soldiers and eight seamen survived. Franchise had signaled that she was about to tack and had John & Jane responded with lights the accident might have been averted. Franchise herself suffered little damage and no casualties.[38]

On 1 August 1811 Allen transferred to Rodney.[37] His replacement was Captain Robert Buck.[11]

In 1812 Franchise was still in the Mediterranean. On 2 February she was in the bay of Cagliari where she captured the French privateer Aventurier (or Venturier), pierced for 14 guns but only mounting three. She and her crew of 60 men were 26 days out of Marseilles but had not captured anything.[39]

Captain Thomas Usher replaced Buck in June.[11] On 26 September, Blake and Franchise provided naval support to a land attack, at night, on Tarragona by troops under the command of General Joaquín Ibáñez Cuevas, Baron d'Eroles. The attack was successful, and resulted, inter alia, in the capture of several small vessels. The Spanish troops suffered three men killed and eight wounded; the British had no casualties whatsoever. Captain Edward Codrington, of Blake, wrote to Baron d'Eroles and to Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, that the officers and crew declined any prize money from the action, in favour of the Spanish troops, "in admiration of the valour and the discipline which they shewed upon the occasion."[40]