History
France
Name	Perle
Namesake	Pearl
Ordered	1789
Builder	Toulon Dockyard
Laid down	June 1789
Launched	27 August 1790
Fate	Handed over to the Royal Navy in August 1793
Great Britain
Name	HMS Amethyst
Acquired	August 1793
Fate	Wrecked 30 December 1795
General characteristics [1][2]
Class and type	Minerve-class frigate
Displacement	1362 tons (French; loaded)
Tons burthen	102880⁄94 (bm)
Length	Overall:150 ft 4 in (45.8 m) Keel:124 ft 6 in (37.9 m)
Beam	39 ft 5 in (12.0 m)
Depth of hold	12 ft 10+1⁄2 in (3.9 m)
Complement	French Navy:324 Royal Navy:300
Armament	French Navy: 26 × 18-pounder long guns SD:10–14 × 8-pounder long guns[3] Royal Navy: Upper deck:28 × 18-pounder guns QD:10 × 6-pounder guns + 6 × 32-pounder carronades Fc:2 × 6-pounder guns

HMS Amethyst was launched in 1790 as the French frigate Perle. The British Royal Navy took possession of her at Toulon in 1793. She was wrecked in 1795 at Alderney.

French frigate

Jacques Brun Sainte Catherine modified a 1782 design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb to produce Perle. The key change was a slight lengthening to permit the addition of a 14th pair of gunports on the upper deck.^[1]

On 21 December 1792 Perle was under the command of sous-lieutenant de vaisseau Van Kempen and carrying passengers from Toulon to Corsica when she grounded near Galéria. Consequently, she spent January to May 1793 undergoing repairs.^[4]

In 1793 Perle sailed from Toulon to Ajaccio and then to Calvi, Haute-Corse. She was still under the command of Van Kempen, who had received a promotion to lieutenant de vaisseau. At Calvi, on 20–21 April, she assisted in its defense against Pasquale Paoli's partisans. Perle then returned to Toulon.

Perle was among the vessels that the French Royalists surrendered to the Royal Navy at Toulon on 29 August 1793. Her French Royalist crew fled to Portoferraio when the Republicans recaptured Toulon.^[5] The British took her with them when they left on 18 December.^[6]

Fate

The Royal Navy took Perle into service as HMS Amethyst. She underwent fitting at Portsmouth between December 1794 and September 1795. Captain Thomas Affleck commissioned her, but proceeded to wreck her at Alderney on 30 December 1795. She left Prawle Point on the evening of 29 December in company with three other ships, but lost them. Captain Affleck went to bed having left vague orders and when notified that warning signals had been heard, simply instructed the officer of the watch to maintain the course. Amethyst struck rocks, but drove over. A massive leak developed and it was decided that she could not go back to England for repairs. Instead, she was sailed to Braye Bay, Alderney and beached. The court martial on 8 March 1796 was highly critical of Captain Affleck. It ordered him to be placed at the bottom of the list of seniority for captains. The Navy never employed him again.^[7]

Post script

Amethyst's guns were retrieved from the wreck and used to arm batteries constructed for them on Alderney.

The Service Historique de la Marine in Paris (rf D1.69 f°135) holds her original plans.^[4] The plans the British made after her capture are at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. (rf 6189 to 6193).^[4]

Citations

References

• Demerliac, Alain (2004). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 à 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 2-906381-24-1.
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Vol. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. p. 348. 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 Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
• 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.