French Naval Service (1785-1796)
Proserpine was stationed at Saint Domingue from 1786 until 1788. From 1793, she served as a commerce raider under Captain Jean-Baptiste Perrée, notably capturing the 32-gun Dutch frigate Vigilante and several merchantmen of a convoy that Vigilante was escorting. On 23 June 1795, under Captain Daugier, Proserpine took part in the Battle of Groix as the flagship of Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse. She unsuccessfully attempted to regroup the French fleet, almost colliding with the Droits de l'Homme in the process. Proserpine then fired a broadside at the approaching British fleet before she escaped.
On 13 June 1796, about 12 leagues south of Cape Clear, Ireland, the frigate Dryad, under the command of Captain Lord Amelius Beauclerk, captured Proserpine following a relatively brief chase but a bitter action. In the engagement, Proserpine, under the command of Citizen Pevrieu, lost 30 men killed and 45 wounded out of her crew of 348 men. Dryad had two men killed and seven wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Dryad 13 June 1796" to all surviving claimants from the action.
As the Royal Navy already had a Proserpine, the Admiralty renamed the captured vessel HMS Amelia. The Royal Navy classified her as a fifth rate of a nominal thirty-eight guns.
Read more about this topic: HMS Amelia (1796)
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