Artesania Latina HMS Surprise Royal Navy Frigate Wooden Kit (22910)

Artesania Latina HMS Surprise Royal Navy Frigate Wooden Kit (22910) | Antics Online

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Artesania Latina HMS Surprise Royal Navy Frigate Wooden Kit (22910)

Built at Le Havre in 1794 as a 24 8lbs long guns French Corvette L Unite, she was captured in 1796 by the British and renamed HMS Surprise

Length 1330mm, Height 960mm

The Unité was a corvette of the French Navy built in 1794, lead ship of her class. She was designed by Pierre-Alexandre Forfait, who was in charge of her construction at Le Havre. She armed with 24 eight-pound and 8 four-pound long guns. She took part in the Third Battle of Ushant by escorting the dismasted Révolutionnaire as she was in tow of the Audacieux. She was captured by surprise on 20 April 1796 at Annaba by HMS Inconstant, frigate captain Le Drézénec, sick of smallpox, being incapable of directing resistance. The Unité was rechristened HMS Surprise and re-classed by the British as a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate. She was initially re-armed with 24 eight-pound long guns on her upper deck, plus 4 twelve-pound carronades and 8 four-pound long guns on her quarter deck, and 2 twelve-pound carronades and 2 four-pound long guns on her forecastle. She was later re-armed with 24 32-pound carronades instead of the nine-pounders on her upper deck, and eight more of the same on her quarter deck and forecastle, as well as 4 six-pound long guns as chasers. She gained fame for the cutting-out expedition in 1799 of HMS Hermione. Hermione's crew had mutinied, and had sailed her into Spanish possession in Puerto Cabello. Captain Edward Hamilton of the Surprise led a boarding party to retake the Hermione and, after an exceptionally bloody action, sailed her out of danger under Spanish gunfire back into British control. She was sold out of the Service at Deptford in February 1802

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