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ATHENIENNE
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Taken at the surrender of Valetta on 4 September 1800.
Wrecked in 1806. |
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- 1801 Capt. Sir Thomas LIVINGSTON. She accompanied Sir John Borlase WARREN to the coast of Egypt in quest of a French squadron.
- She left Gibraltar on 25 August 1802, arrived in Portsmouth on 11 September, and was placed in quarantine.
- 1803 Out of commission.
- 1805 Capt. John GIFFARD. ATHENIENNE was sent out to Gibraltar with stores for the fleet after the battle of Trafalgar. She subsequently formed part of the squadron under Sir William Sidney SMITH employed in the defence of Gaieta and the the capture of Capri.
- 1806 Capt. Robert RAYNSFORD, who was going to Malta to exchange with Capt SCHOMBERG.
With 470 officers, men and passengers on board she sailed from Gibraltar on 16 October with a fair wind and arrived off Sardinia on the 20th. She set course for Malta and, moments after the captain remarked "if the Esquerques shoals do exist we should now be upon them," she struck on Keith's Reef, part of the volcanic shoal in the channel between Sardinia, Sicily and Africa which had been discovered and named by Capt. William DURBAN.
It was about 9. 30 in the evening and the ship was doing about 5 knots. In less than half an hour she had filled up to the lower deck ports and fell over on her beam-ends.
The captain ordered the boats to be hoisted out but as soon as the two quarter-boats were lowered the men in them made off and were seen no more. Thirty men perished when the the cutter and barge were stove in and swamped and several were killed by falling masts and booms. A number managed to escape in the launch and, the following morning, fell in with a Danish brig. When they returned to the wreck the found that the remaining 347, including Capt. RAYNSFORD, had perished during the night. Although the launch had neither sail, food or water, the survivors managed to reach Trapani in Sicily where they found a small vessel bound for Malta which they reached on the 25th.
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