French ship Jean Bart (1786)

History
France
Name	Jean Bart
Namesake	Jean Bart
Builder	Bayonne
Launched	1786
Acquired	Requisitioned in January 1794 in Nantes
Commissioned	1793 as a privateer
Captured	By Britain on 15 April 1795
Great Britain
Name	HMS Laurel
Acquired	1795 by purchase of a prize
Fate	Sold at Jamaica in 1797
General characteristics [1][2]
Class and type	Corvette
Displacement	550 tons (French)
Tons burthen	42318⁄94 (bm)
Length	107 ft 0 in (32.61 m) (overall) 82 ft 6+1⁄2 in (25.159 m) (keel)
Beam	30 ft 0 in (9.14 m)
Depth of hold	8 ft 7 in (2.62 m)
Sail plan	Full-rigged ship
Complement	French service: 177 British service: 100
Armament	French service: 5 × 12-pounder guns, 19 × 8-pounder guns 1795: 24 × 8-pounder guns British service=22 × 9-pounder guns

Jean Bart was a merchant vessel built at Bayonne in 1786. Her owners commissioned her at Nantes in 1793 as a privateer. The French Navy requisitioned her in January 1794 and classed her as a corvette and listed her as Jean Bart No. 2 to distinguish her from the French corvette Jean Bart (1793). The Navy intended to rename her Imposant in May 1795, but the Royal Navy captured her first.^[1]

On 15 April 1795, a naval squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren gave chase to Jean Bart, described in the report of the capture as being a ship-corvette of 26 guns and 187 men. The actual captor, off the Île de Ré, was HMS Artois.^[3]

The Royal Navy took Jean Bart into service as the post ship HMS Laurel. Between July and 8 December 1795 the Royal Navy had Laurel fitted a Portsmouth. She had been flush-decked, but received a small forecastle, quarterdeck, and extra platforms. She was commissioned under Captain Robert Rolles. He had been promoted to post captain on 12 August 1785; he had been captain of the hired armed ship Lord Mulgrave.^[4]

Rolles sailed Laurel for the coast of Africa and then the Leeward Islands.^[5] In May 1796 Laurel participated in the capture of Saint Lucia under Rear Admiral Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian and General Ralph Abercrombie,^[4] and shared in the prize money for the capture.^[6]

Laurel was sold in 1797 at Jamaica.^[2]

• Marshall, John (1823). "Rolles, Robert" . Royal Naval Biography. Vol. 1, part 2. London: Longman and company.
• Schomberg, Isaac (1802) Naval Chronology, Or an Historical Summary of Naval and Maritime Events from the Time of the Romans, to the Treaty of Peace 1802: With an Appendix, Volume 4. (London: T. Egerton).
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
• Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.