French frigate Capricieuse (1786)
Introduction '''''Capricieuse''''' was a 36-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. She was launched in Lorient, France, on 20 November 1786 and commissioned under Captain de Ferrières in 1787.In 1788, ''Capricieuse'' accidentally ran aground. She was refloated in 1789.In February 1791, ''Capricieuse'' took a station in Saint-Domingue, from which she returned in October 1792, carrying the former governor of Saint-Domingue, General Philibert François Rouxel de Blanchelande, to France so that he could be tried for counter-revolutionary actions.In September 1793, ''Capricieuse'' was renamed '''''Charente''''' and manned by the crew of the French Navy frigate ''Néréide''. She took part in the Croisière du Grand Hiver and in the Expédition d'Irlande, where she shadowed ''Trajan''.In 1798, ''Charente'' was used to ferry detainees to Cayenne in French Guiana. In late March 1798, under Commander Bruillac, she battled a Royal Navy force off Gironde, France. ''Charente'' was lost on 31 October 1799, when she ran aground at the entrance of the river Blavet on the Brittany coast of France.
References **