French frigate Cornélie (1797)

History
France
Name	Cornélie
Launched	19 September 1797
Captured	14 June 1808 by Spain
Spain
Name	Cornélie
Acquired	1808 by capture
Renamed	Cornelia
Fate	Sold 21 October 1815 and broken up
General characteristics
Class and type	Virginie-class frigate
Displacement	1400 tonnes
Length	47.4 m (155 ft 6 in)
Beam	11.9 m (39 ft 1 in)
Draught	5.5 m (18 ft 1 in)
Armament	40 guns (though pierced for 44 guns) 28 × 18-pounder cannon and 12 × 12-pounder cannon
Armour	Timber

The Cornélie was a 40-gun Virginie-class frigate of the French Navy.

In April 1799, along with Vengeance and Sémillante, she fought against HMS St Fiorenzo and HMS Amelia.[1]

On 4 August 1803 Cornélie sortied from Toulon as part of a squadron of four frigates and some corvettes. Cornélie captured the schooner HMS Redbreast and the water transport that Redbreast was escorting from Malta to Admiral Nelson's fleet.^[citation needed]

She took part in the Battle of Cape Finisterre and in the Battle of Trafalgar.[1]

On 14 June 1808, The Spanish captured a French squadron at Cádiz that included Cornélie. The Spaniards then brought her into Spanish service as Cornelia. She was sold at Havana on 21 October 1815 and broken up.[2]

Citations

1. Roche, p.129
2. Winfield & Roberts, p.140

References

• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671–1870. p. 129. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French warships in the age of sail, 1786-1861. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-184832-204-2.