Vésuve-class gunbrig

The Vésuve class was a class of seven 4-gun gunbrigs (bricks-canonniers).

Plans of Vésuve as surveyed by the British after her capture
Class overview
Name	Vésuve
Operators	French Navy Royal Navy
In commission	1793-1810
Completed	7
General characteristics
Class and type	Vésuve
Type	gunbrig
Displacement	80 ton (French)
Length	22.7 metres
Beam	6.5 metres
Draught	2.4 metres
Propulsion	Sail
Complement	122-198
Armament	Design: 4 × 24-pounder long guns French navy: 4 × 18-pounder long guns 6 × 36-pounder brass carronades Royal Navy: Upper deck: 10 × 32–pounder carronades QD:2 × 18-pounder guns
Armour	Timber

The Royal Navy captured three of the seven vessels in the class and took them into British service.

Vésuve class (7 ships)

• Vésuve

Builder:

Begun: February 1793

Launched: May 1793

Completed: June 1793

Fate: Captured by HMS Melampus and HMS Hebe on 3 July 1795. Commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Vesuve, sold in 1802

• Volage

Builder: Lemarchand, Saint-Malo

Begun: March 1793

Launched: May 1793

Completed: June 1793

Fate: Captured in 1803 by boats from HMS Loire; sold in 1807

• Cruelle

Builder:

Begun:

Launched:

Completed:

Fate:

Notes:

• Foudre

Builder: Saint Malo

Begun: 1793

Launched: January 1794

Completed: February 1794

Fate: Struck in Saint Valéry en Caux in December 1798

Notes: Renamed Fantôme in May 1795

• Hargneuse

Builder: Saint Malo

Begun: 1792

Launched: September 1793

Completed: September 1793

Fate: Decommissioned in Brest in February 1810

Notes: renamed Canonnière n°14 in May 1801

• Protectrice

Builder: Saint Malo

Begun: March 1793

Launched: August 1793

Completed: September 1793

Fate: Decommissioned on 31 March 1807

Notes:

• Vaillante

Builder: Saint Malo

Begun: 1793

Launched: 1793

Completed: June 1793

Fate: Ran aground in combat against Lapwing, then destroyed by gunfire on 29 November 1796

References

• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours, 1671–1870. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1861762467.
• Winfield, Rif & Stephen S Roberts (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786 - 1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. (Seaforth Publishing). ISBN 9781848322042