HMS Vengeance (1800)

On 31 January 1800, during the Quasi-War, Vengeance engaged the USS Constellation. Toll reports that Vengeance had a broadside of 559 pounds compared to the American vessel's 372 pounds.[5] Troude reports her armament as twenty-six 18-pounders, ten 6-pounders and four 36-pounder carronades (336 pound broadside), compared to Constellation's twenty-eight 18-pounders, ten 12-pounders and one 32-pounder carronade (472 pound broadside).[6]

Constellation had sailed under Captain Thomas Truxtun from Saint Kitts on 30 January, and came across Vengeance the following day. Vengeance was bound for France under Capitaine de Vaisseau François Pitot, carrying passengers and specie, and initially attempted to outrun Constellation.[7] Truxton gave chase, and eventually came within range during the evening. Before dawn, Vengeance hoisted her flag, and Constellation answered with a red-tailed flag and a blue jack that the French did not understand.[8] After Pitot refused a request to surrender, the two began to exchange broadsides, with Vengeance aiming high to damage Constellation's rigging.[7] Constellation eluded Pitot's attempts to board her, around 9:00 and again around 11:00.[6]

The action lasted until one o'clock the following morning, having been fought in poor light, with the ships often ill defined shapes to each other. Vengeance's and Constellation's guns eventually fell silent; Toll reports that Pitot may even have struck his colours but Constellation had suffered considerable damage to her masts and rigging, eventually losing her main mast at the conclusion of the action around half past midnight.[6][9] The two ships drifted apart while the Americans repaired their damage.[9] The Americans believed Vengeance had sunk, but her captain actually had managed to sail her as far as Curaçao, where he ran her onto the beach to prevent her from sinking.[5] Estimates of French casualties ran to 160, while Constellation had 15 killed and 25 wounded.[5] Pitot recorded that his guns had fired 742 rounds during the action, while Constellation had fired 1,129.[9] According to Troude, Constellation never identified herself.[6]

The French repaired Vengeance and returned her to service. Then on 20 August 1800 the frigate HMS Seine, under the command of Captain David Milne, attacked her in the Mona Passage. Both ships sustained heavy casualties; 13 crew were killed aboard Seine, 29 were wounded, and the ship was cut up.[10] Vengeance, still under the command of Pitot, sustained worse damage and surrendered after about an hour and a half of hard fighting.[11][12] One source estimates that Vengeance suffered some 35 men killed and some 70 wounded before she struck.[13]

At the time of her capture Vengeance was armed with twenty-eight 18-pounders on her main deck, sixteen 12-pounders and eight 42-pounder carronades on her quarterdeck and forecastle, brass swivel guns on the gunwale, and shifting guns on the main and quarter decks. All these measures were in French pounds.[11] In English measures the broadsides in this case were 498 pounds for Seine and 434 for Vengeance. Crew sizes were 281 men and 326 men, respectively.[13][lower-alpha 1] Troude attributes to Vengeance an armament of twenty-six 18-pounders, ten 8-pounders and four 36-pounder carronades, totalling a broadside of 346 pounds.[14]

The naval historian William James subsequently exaggerated the engagement in favour of the French. He declared that as Seine had done what Constellation could not, British naval forces were "more potent than American thunder".[10] In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Seine 20 Augt. 1800" to any surviving crew members of Seine that came forward to claim it.[15]