Loss of Serapis
Between October and December 1779 Serapis was in the Texel. By September 1780 she was probably at Lorient.
The French commissioned Serapis as a privateer under a master named Roche who planned to use the ship against the British in the Indian Ocean. However, in July 1781 the ship was lost off the coast of Madagascar when a sailor accidentally dropped a lantern into a tub of brandy. The crew fought the fire for two and a half hours, but the flames eventually burned through the spirit locker walls and reached a powder magazine. The resulting explosion blew the stern off the ship and the vessel sank. Eight men were killed in the explosion, but 215 apparently were saved. The privateer Daliram returned them to Île Sainte-Marie, Madagascar.
Read more about this topic: HMS Serapis (1779)
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