HMS Guerriere: Captured By a Captured Ship

Wikipedia.

38-gun, 5th rate frigate, originally in French Navy. Launched 1803 and, at time of capture, was attacking British and Russian whalers in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Greenland.

On July 19, 1806, forced to surrender to HMS Blanche and commissioned by the British as the HMS Guerriere and served in the West Indies and off the American coast. Captured by the Constitution August 19, 1812.

Had the ship not been so damaged in the battle and sunk, it might have also served in the U.S. Navy, making twice she was captured and three navies she served.

Of interest, the HMS Blanche, was formerly the 5th rate frigate Amfitrite in the Spanish Navy which had been captured by the 74-gun ship-of-the-line HMS Donegal off Spain 25 November 1804.

Also of interest, the United States laynched its own USS Guerriere, named after the British/French one in 1815, the first frigate built by the country since 1801.

The Story of Some Ships. --Brock-Perry