The Prudente was a 32-gun Capricieuse class frigate frigate of the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

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In 1791, under lieutenant Villaret de Joyeuse

Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse

Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse was a French admiral.-Early career:Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse was born in Auch, in the heart of Gascony. The Villaret de Joyeuse family figured among the minor nobility from Languedoc...

, she was tasked with ferrying troops to Cap Français

Cap-Haïtien

Cap-Haïtien is a city of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the Department of Nord...

 and with police duty in Santo Domingo. In 1793, she returned to France, escorting a convoy from Terre-Neuve, under Villaret de Joyeuse, by then promoted to Captain.

On 22 October 1794, soon after the outbreak of the war with England, and along with the 40-gun Cybèle

French frigate Cybèle (1790)

The Cybèle was an Nymphe class 40-gun frigate of the French Navy.On 22 October 1794, soon after the outbreak of the war with England, and along with the 32-gun Prudente and the brig Coureur, she fought HMS Centurion and , who blockaded Ile de France. The French ships managed to drive away the...

 and the brig Coureur, she fought and , who blockaded Île de France

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

. The French ships managed to drive away the British ships.

She served a time at Mauritius, before being sold and becoming a privateer.

Capture

captured Prudente on 9 February 1799 near Table Bay

Table Bay

Table Bay is a natural bay on the Atlantic Ocean overlooked by Cape Town and is at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula, which stretches south to the Cape of Good Hope. It was named because it is dominated by the flat-topped Table Mountain.Bartolomeu Dias was the first European to explore this...

, Cape of Good Hope. At daybreak Daedalus spotted two sails and gave chase to the larger vessel, catching up with her at about 12:30. The quarry struck after an action of almost an hour. She proved to be the Prudente, which Captain H.L. Ball referred to as a French National frigate, rather than a privateer. She was pierced for 42 guns but was armed with twenty-six 12-pounders on her main-deck and two long 6-pounders and two brass howitzers on her quarterdeck. She had a crew of 297 men. In the fight, Daedalus lost two men killed and 12 wounded. Prudente lost 27 men killed and 22 wounded. The ship in her company, which escaped, was an American vessel that she had taken as a prize.

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