French ship Infatigable (1798)

History
France
Name	Infatigable
Builder	Nantes
Launched	1798
Captured	6 March 1799
Great Britain
Name	HMS Dispatch
Acquired	1799 by purchase of a prize
Fate	Sold 7 September 1801
General characteristics [1]
Tons burthen	200,(French; "of load")[2] or 23762⁄94, or 238[3] (bm)
Length	Overall: 90 ft 4 in (27.5 m) Keel: 71 ft 0+7⁄8 in (21.7 m)
Beam	25 ft 0+7⁄8 in (7.6 m)
Depth of hold	11 ft 3 in (3.4 m)
Complement	Privateer: 120 RN:90
Armament	Privateer: 18 guns RN: 16 × 18-pounder carronades + 2 × 6-pounder chase guns

The French ship Infatigable was launched in 1798 at Nantes. She became a privateer that the British Royal Navy captured in 1799 and named HMS Dispatch. The Navy never commissioned Dispatch and sold her in 1801.

Infatigable was commissioned in December 1798 with 120 men and 18 guns.^[2]

On 6 March 1799 HMS Ethalion captured the 18-gun privateer Infatigable in the Channel after a 10-hour chase. Infatigable was armed with 18 guns and had a crew of 120 men. She was only one day out of Nantes, provisioned for a four-month cruise.^[4] "Indefatigable" arrived at Portsmouth on 25 March and was laid up.^[1]

The "Principal officers and commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" offered Dispatch for sale on 24 August 1801.^[3] She sold on 7 September for £765.^[1]

• Demerliac, Alain (1999). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 à 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 9782906381247. OCLC 492783890.
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.