HMS Tapageur (1779)

The British warships Apollo, Porcupine, and Milford captured Tapaguer, of Saint-Malo, on 15 March 1779.[3][lower-alpha 1] A report in the Mercure has her striking on the arrival of three British warships after she had held off a British privateer of 20 guns for four-and-a-half hours.[4]

Tapageur was commissioned into the Royal Navy in May under the command of Lieutenant Lord Charles FitzGerald. She then spent the summer in Admiral Hardy's fleet in the Channel.[5] In late 1779 she was at Portsmouth, attached to Admiral Rodney's fleet, which was preparing to take troops to Gibraltar, Minorca, and the West Indies. The fleet sailed on Christmas Day from St Helens, Isle of Wight. On 4 January 1780, Rodney detached Captain Hyde Parker, Jr. at 46°2′N 13°12′W in the 74-gun Hector, together with Phoenix, Greyhound, and Tapageur to escort the West Indies convoy, which was transporting troops from the 88th Regiment of Foot and the 89th Regiment of Foot.[6]

Tapageur was wrecked in March while warping into Carenage Bay at Saint Lucia.[7] The British had captured Saint Lucia in December, though Tapageur arrived too late to participate.

Although the records are clear that Tapageur was wrecked, there are later accounts of her continued service. First, Rodney lists her as repeating an order to Marlborough at the Battle of Martinique on 17 April.[8] Second, she appears in order of battle at the Battle of Porto Praya under the command of Lieutenant Philip D'Auvergne.[9][10] Then she accompanied Jason on a reconnaissance towards the Cape of Good Hope and returned to Porto Praya with the news of the presence at Saldanha Bay of five Dutch East Indiamen.[11] The British sailed there and captured four (the fifth was destroyed) at the Battle of Saldanha Bay. However, none of these accounts is supported by primary sources.

• Clowes, W. Laird; et al. (1897–1903). The Royal Navy: A history from the earliest times to the present. Boston / London: Little, Brown and Co. / S. Low, Marston and Co.
• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• Demerliac, Alain (1996). La Marine de Louis XVI: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1774 à 1792 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 9782906381230. OCLC 468324725.
• Duncan, Archibald (1805). The British trident; or, Register of naval actions, from ... the Spanish armada to the present time. Vol. 3. J. Cundee.
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
• Mundy, Godrey Basil (1830). The life and correspondence of the late Admiral Lord Rodney. Vol. 2. J. Murray.
• Schomberg, Isaac (1802). Naval Chronology, Or an Historical Summary of Naval and Maritime Events from the Time of the Romans, to the Treaty of Peace 1802: With an Appendix. Vol. 4. London: T. Egerton.
• Syrett, David (1998). The Royal Navy in European Waters During the American Revolutionary War. Univ. of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-238-7.
• Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1844157006.

• Media related to HMS Tapageur (ship, 1779) at Wikimedia Commons

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