French frigate Caroline (1806)


Caroline was a 40-gun of the French Navy. She was launched in 1806 and sent to the Indian Ocean in 1809. There she was captured by the British during the Napoleonic Wars. The British renamed the ship to HMS Bourbonaise, as the capture was near Île Bourbon during the British campaign to seize that island and Mauritius, and the British had a ship in service named Caroline.

Service history

Actions in 1807

On 30 November 1807 Caroline captured Charlotte, which Caroline set afire and sank. A week later, on 6 December, Caroline captured the privateer Caesar, which she also set on fire and sank. Caesar was a brig of 217 tons, armed with fourteen 6-pounders and two 18-pounder carronades. Her master, Robert Harrison, had received his letter of marque on 1 January 1807.

Indian Ocean mission and capture

On 12 November 1808, the French authorities sent four new 40-gun frigates to the Indian Ocean, one of them Caroline, under the command of Captain Jean-Baptiste Billard. Caroline sailed from Vlissingen in the Netherlands.
Caroline initially patrolled with, Captain Breton, and Iéna, under capitaine de vaisseau Billard. Manche was another of the four; she had sailed from Cherbourg.
Caroline captured several ships, notably two East Indiamen and Europa on 31 May 1809, before returning to Saint-Paul. A third East Indiaman,, escaped. Prize crews took Streatham and Europa to Réunion, where the British recaptured them on 21 September.
While Billard was suffering from very serious illness, Caroline was under the command of his first mate lieutenant de vaisseau Feretier. He was Carolines commander on 21 September when and captured her during the British Raid on Saint-Paul.

HMS ''Bourbonaise''

She was taken into British service as HMS Bourbonaise, there already being a ship named HMS Caroline in service.
Bourbonnaise was commissioned under Captain Robert Corbett shortly after her capture. He sailed her to Plymouth, where she arrived 16 February 1810. The Admiralty paid her off and laid her up in ordinary. She never went to sea again.
The Admiralty attempted to auction Bourbonaise at Plymouth on 18 September 1816 at £2500, but bidding stopped at £2000. She was broken up in April 1817.