HMS Alceste was built at Rochefort in 1804 for the French Navy as Minerve, an . In the spring of 1806, prior to her capture, she engaged , then under Lord Cochrane. During the duel she ran aground but Cochrane had to abort his attack when French reinforcements appeared.
The British captured her in an action on 25 September 1806, and the Royal Navy took Minerve into service as Alceste in March 1807; Alceste then continued to serve throughout the Napoleonic Wars. On 29 November 1811, Alceste led a British squadron that captured a French military convoy carrying more than 200 cannon to Trieste in the Balkans. After this loss, Napoleon changed the direction of his planned eastward expansion in 1812 from the Balkans to Russia. The British historian James Henderson has suggested that the two events were linked, and may have changed the course of the war.
In 1814, Alceste was converted to a troopship and used to transport British soldiers to North America during the War of 1812. Following the Treaty of Paris in 1815, Alceste carried Lord Amherst on his 1816 diplomatic mission to China. On the return journey, she struck a reef in the Java Sea; her wreck was subsequently plundered and burned by Malayan pirates.
Construction and armament Alceste was built to a design by Pierre Rolland for the French Navy as Minerve, an . Her construction began at Rochefort in May 1804, she was launched in September 1805 and finished that November.Winfield, p. 178 Measuring along her gundeck with a beam of and a depth in the hold of ; she had a capacity of 1,097 tons burthen. When first fitted out, Minerve carried twenty-eight as her main battery and fourteen carronades on her quarter-deck; her forecastle had two long guns and two carronades.
French service Minerve was initially commanded by Capitaine Jaques Collet, entering service during the early days of the War of the Fourth Coalition between Britain and her allies, and Napoleonic France. In April 1806 she was part of a squadron—under Contre-amiral Zacharie Allemand and comprising five ships-of-the-line, five frigates, and four smaller vessels—anchored under the shore batteries of the Île-d'Aix awaiting the opportunity to put to sea.Henderson, p. 101 The British knew the location of Allemand's squadron; on 25 April Admiral Edward Thornbrough, sent the British frigate close to the Île-d'Aix to count the enemy vessels. Allemand ordered Minerve and three corvettes, , , and , to meet the British frigate, leading to a skirmish in which no ship incurred much damage. Three other British vessels subsequently approached—the frigate , the 16-gun sloop , and a cutter—and Capitaine Collet ended the engagement by sailing Minerve to a position under the shelter of the island's guns.Henderson, p. 102
Pallas returned on 12 May with and a 16-gun ship-sloop, . Allemande despatched two large frigates and three corvettes; facing unfavourable winds, the British withdrew.Henderson, pp. 102–103 Two days later, Pallas and Kingfisher came back and Allemande again ordered Minerve, Lynx, Sylphe, and Palinure to chase Cochrane off.Woodman, p. 224 As a precaution, he also had two other large frigates, and , cleared for action and ready to go.James (Vol. IV), p. 232 Collett ordered his ships to set all sail in the hope of catching Pallas before she could escape, but Cochrane was in no hurry to leave and even attempted to draw the French on by backing his topsails and slowing down. Once in range, Pallas opened fire, bringing down the topsail yard of one of the smaller vessels and then retreating into nearby shoals with Minerve in pursuit. By 13:00 Minerve had come up on the leeward side of Pallas, whereupon Pallas fired into her and closed with the intention of boarding. Just at that moment, Minerve hit a sandbank and Pallas crashed into her. The force of the collision, great enough to jolt Pallass guns from their positions, did not prevent her from unleashing a devastating broadside.Woodman, pp. 224–225 Both ships were damaged but Pallass shallower draught prevented her grounding. Her crew were able to disengage and get back under way, having seen the two 40-gun French frigates, Armide and Infatigable, drawing near. The crew of Kingfisher sailed in to take Pallas in tow; the latter had lost her fore topmast, jib-boom, spritsail, stunsail, and main topsail yards.Woodman, p. 225 Minerve was only lightly damaged; she was re-floated and taken to Rochefort for repair. The engagement cost the lives of seven seamen aboard Minerve, with a further fourteen injured. There were a further one dead and five wounded aboard Pallas.Henderson, p. 104
Capture
By September 1806 Minerve had joined a squadron—along with the large frigates Armide, , Infatigable, and , and the brig-corvettes Lynx and Sylphe—under Eléon-Jean-Nicolas Soleil. The squadron left Rochefort on 24 September 1806, bound for the West Indies. At 01:00 on 25 September Soleil's squadron were spotted near the Chassiron lighthouse by a powerful British force under Samuel Hood, comprising five 74-gun ships (, , , , and ), the 98-gun , and the 16-gun brig . The French sought to avoid engagement, turning to the south-south-west with the British in general pursuit.James (Vol. IV), p. 262 After three hours the fastest British ship, Monarch, was within range of Armide. The next nearest British ship was Centaur, over eight miles further back; seeing an opportunity, four of the French frigates fled. Infatigable, set off north but was pursued and later caught by Mars; Thémis and the two brigs headed south and eventually escaped.James (Vol. IV), p. 263
The remaining French frigates closed-up for mutual protection. At 10:00, Monarch engaged Minerve and Armide, as the weather prevented Monarch from opening her lower gun ports, she was badly mauled. An hour later, Centaur caught up and began firing at Armide and Gloire, leaving Monarch to continue her fight with Minerve. Armide struck to Centaur at 11:45 and Minerve surrendered to Monarch shortly after.Henderson, pp. 104–105 Gloire veered west in an attempt to throw her pursuers but Centaur and Mars chased her down and forced her to strike at 15:00.
British service
The captured Minerve arrived at Plymouth on 26 October 1806, and after languishing there for some months, was taken into service as HMS Alceste. Commissioned in March 1807 under Captain Murray Maxwell and refitted between April and August, she was sent to the Mediterranean in December. Following the French invasion of Portugal in November 1807, a British expedition to capture the island of Madeira was proposed. Admiral Samuel Hood's squadron—comprising ships-of-the-line, Centaur, , and , and the frigates Alceste, Africaine, , and —escorted troopships into Funchal Bay on 24 December. The island was peacefully occupied two days later.James (Vol. IV), p. 350
In the action of 4 April 1808, Alceste, with and , attacked a Spanish convoy off Rota. While at anchor about three miles to the north-west of the San Sebastián lighthouse, the British ships noticed the large convoy, escorted by 20 gun-boats and sailing close to the land so as to also benefit from the protection of a mobile artillery following on the shore. Coming under heavy fire, the three ships closed with the convoy at around 16:00. Grasshopper, requiring less water than the frigates, was able to stand in close to the town and bombard the batteries there, while Alceste and Mercury concentrated their fire on the gun-boats, destroying two of the escorts and driving many of the merchants ashore. Seven were subsequently captured and sailed back out to sea by marines and sailors of the British ships.James (Vol. V), p. 38
In 1808, with Napoleon controlling much of Europe, a plan was conceived by Sir Robert Adair, ambassador to Venice, to extract Pope Pius VII from Rome. It was thought that the Pope in exile could encourage the Catholic countries of Spain and Italy to rise up against Napoleon. Admiral Collingwood, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, dispatched Alceste and an 18-gun sloop, , to Palermo where they arrived on 12 August. The British diplomat there, William Drummond, selected four priests willing to undertake the mission. They boarded Alceste and set sail on 26 August. On 31 August boats from Alceste put the party ashore at Ostia, near Rome, where they made contact with a representative of the Vatican who agreed to speak to the Pope but failed to return. When it was deemed necessary to travel to Rome to re-establish contact, the priests refused to go. Maxwell sent them back to Palermo in Acorn, which returned a week later with another volunteer of Drummond's. Landed on the night of 19 September, the envoy was captured and shot as a spy the following day. Consequently, the entire plan was abandoned.
On 22 May 1810, Alceste encountered some French feluccas—lightly armed merchant vessels with lateen rigs—that were forced to seek refuge under the guns of the bay of Agay. Under cover of darkness, two boats from Alceste, one under Lieutenant Andrew Wilson, the other led by the ship's master, Henry Bell, attacked the shore batteries. This was only partially successful; Wilson was unable to achieve his objective, while Bell's section managed to spike the guns of the second battery but only after taking heavy fire.Woodman, p. 251 Alceste stood out to sea for three days, and on the night of 25 May, Maxwell sent two armed boats to lay in wait in a rocky cove. The following morning Alceste set sail. The French, assuming Alceste had gone, attempted to leave, but the two British boats lying in ambush attacked. Despite fierce resistance and fire from the guns on shore, four ships of the French convoy were captured and two driven on to the rocks. The remainder made it safely back to their anchorage.James (Vol. V), p. 251
Boats of Alceste and captured two vessels in the bay of Martino, Corsica on 21 June 1810. Protecting the entrance to the bay was a three-gun battery, which a landing party captured and put out of action. Several of the garrison were wounded or killed during the attack. British casualties amounted to one killed and two wounded.
In 1811, Alceste entered the Adriatic and on 4–5 May, she and Belle Poule participated in a raid at Parenza (Istria). Having chased a brig into the harbour, but unable to follow due to the rocks and shallow water, the two frigates stood outside and opened fire on her and the battery protecting her. After an hour, the brig was forced to move nearer the shore, out of range.James (Vol. V), p. 364 At 23:00, the British landed 200 seamen and all their marines on an island nearby, and also landed two 9-pounders and two howitzers that they placed in one battery, and a field piece that they placed further away. From there, they were able to engage the French in Parenza in a five-hour mutual bombardment. The brig was eventually destroyed and the men and cannons returned to their ships. Belle Poule had one man killed and three wounded, and Alceste had two men killed during the action. All casualties occurred ashore.
At the action of 29 November 1811, Alceste led the British frigate squadron that outran and defeated a French military convoy carrying a cargo of cannon. The day before, Alceste had been stationed at the island of Lissa (now Vis), with the frigates Unité and , when word was received of a similar sized French squadron heading north.Henderson, p. 168 The British frigates could not immediately set sail because Maxwell feared an attack from a strong French force nearby. As a defence, he placed two batteries on an island in the harbour's entrance, manned by the ships' marines, and three previously captured gun-boats manned by around 30 seamen from Alceste and Active. These precautions not only weakened but delayed Maxwell's squadron, which put to sea at 19:00, twelve hours later.James (Vol. V), p. 376