HMS Valeur (1759)
HMS Valeur was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, initially launched in 1754 as the Valeur for the French Navy, and classified by them as a corvette. The British captured her in 1759. In Royal Navy service she captured several merchant vessels and privateers before she was sold in 1764.
Origins
Valeur was built between March 1754 and May 1755 at Rochefort to a design by François-Guillaume Clairin-Deslauriers. She was launched on 29 October 1754. Her career with the French Navy lasted five years.Capture
She was serving in the Mediterranean when on 15 April 1759, then a 14-gun sloop under the command of Commander Timothy Edwards, serving with a British squadron under Edward Boscawen, engaged her and forced her to surrender. The previous day Favourite and had captured a French merchant vessel sailing from Martinique. The next day the two British vessels saw and gave chase to two more French vessels. Favourite was able to catch up with one of them when the wind failed and she could use her oars. After an engagement that lasted some two-and-a-half hours at the onset of which Edwards had succeeded in wrong-footing Valeur, Valeur surrendered. When the engagement ended Favorite had only two rounds and a half of powder left, having fired 50 broadsides.Valeur had twenty 9-pounder guns, four 12-pounder guns, and a crew of 110 men. Favourite had only sixteen 6-pounder guns and four 3-pounder guns, though she too had a nominal crew of 110 men. In the engagement, Valeur had 13 men killed and 9 wounded; Favourite suffered extensive damage to her hull, masts, yards and rigging, but had only seven men wounded. Valeur was carrying a valuable cargo of sugar, coffee and indigo.
Royal Navy career
The Admiralty purchased Valeur at Gibraltar on 13 December 1759. The Royal Navy commissioned her as a post-ship and Boscawen awarded command of her to Edwards ;- privateer Belle Etoile, in company with ;
- pinque Ste. Famille ;
- tartane St. Joseph ;
- settee Sto. Christo, in company with and the privateer Bee; and,
- xebec St. Joseph, a privateer.