Privateering Career
The Hinchinbrook started life as the French merchant vessel Astrée, built in 1778 at Nantes, and her owners were Guilliaume and Son, of that city. She was carrying a cargo of bricks and bale goods from Nantes when a British squadron under Captain Joseph Deane in HMS Ruby captured her off Cape François, on 13 October 1778. She was described as being a ship of 650 tons, armed with 14 guns, and under the command of Louis David, master. A prize crew then took her into port, where the Royal Navy purchased her for the sum of £5,650 on 1 December 1778, renaming her as a courtesy to Viscount Hinchinbroke, eldest son of John_Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty in Lord North's administration.
Read more about this topic: HMS Hinchinbrook (1778)
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“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)