- British privateer
- French service
- Royal Navy service and loss
- Notes, Citations, and references
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}}{{Use British English|date=September 2017}}{{other ships|HMS Active}}{{Infobox ship image| Ship image= | Ship caption=
}}{{Infobox ship career | Ship country=United Kingdom | Ship flag= | Ship name=Active | Ship namesake= | Ship owner= | Ship builder= | Ship laid down= | Ship yard number= | Ship launched= c.1789 | Ship captured=21 May 1793 | Ship fate= | Ship status= | Ship notes=
}}{{Infobox ship career | Hide header=title | Ship country=France | Ship flag= | Ship name=Actif | Ship ordered= | Ship builder= | Ship acquired=21 May 1793 by capture | Ship laid down= | Ship launched= | Ship commissioned= | Ship decommissioned= | Ship in service= | Ship out of service= | Ship renamed= | Ship struck= | Ship reinstated= | Ship honours | Ship captured=16 March 1794 | Ship fate= | Ship status= | Ship notes=
}}{{Infobox ship career | Hide header=title | Ship country=United Kingdom | Ship flag= | Ship name= HMS Actif | Ship launched= | Ship acquired=By capture 1794 | Ship renamed= | Ship fate=Foundered 1794 | Ship status= | Ship honours= | Ship notes=
}}{{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header= | Winfield|2008|p=336}}[1] | Ship type=sloop | Demerliac|2004|p=98, n°603}} | Ship tons burthen=165, or 100[1] (bm) | Ship length= | Ship beam= | Ship hold depth= | Ship speed= | Ship range= | Ship boats= | Ship capacity= | Ship complement=- British privateer:40
- Royal Navy service:60
| Ship armament=- British privateer:12 × 4-pounder guns + 4 × swivel guns
- French privateer: 6 to 16 guns{{sfnp|Demerliac|2004|p=98, n°603}}
- Royal Navy service:10 × 4-pounder guns
| Ship motto= | Ship nickname= | Ship honours= | Ship notes= | Ship badge=
}} | HMS Actif was the British privateer Active that the French captured in 1793 and that became the French privateer Actif. {{HMS|Iphigenia|1780|2}} recaptured Actif on 16 March 1794. The Royal Navy took her into service but she foundered on 26 November. All her crew were saved. British privateerActive was a Liverpool privateer launched c. 1789.{{sfnp|Williams|1897|p=314}} She was under the command of Captain Stephen Bower (or Bowers), and was sailing under a letter of marque dated 2 May 1793.[1]The French frigate Sémillante captured her on 21 May 1793.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=336}} At capture, Active was armed with eleven guns and three howitzers.{{sfnp|Demerliac|2004|p=98, n°603}} French serviceOn 16 March 1794 {{HMS|Iphigenia|1770|2}} captured both Actif and {{HMS|Espiegle|1794|2}} in the West Indies.{{sfnp|Norie|1842|p=406}}{{refn|One account has it that the British sent Active/Actif into Guernsey.{{sfnp|Williams|1897|p=314}} This seems improbable, or suggests that there may be a confusion of vessels.|group=Note}} Royal Navy service and lossThe Royal Navy registered Actif as a sloop on 17 July. However, already by 4 June she was on active service with the Royal Navy, participating in the capture of Port-au-Prince.[2] Commander John Harvey became her captain on 5 September.{{sfnp|Leslie|1891|p=91, Vol. 25.}} Harvey was sailing Actif to England when by 24 November she developed leaks while off Bermuda. Even with the crew working the pumps continuously, she took on so much water as her structure weakened that on the 26th she had to make distress signals. {{HMS|St Albans|1764|6}} came up and rescued Harvey and his crew. The rescuers left her to founder at {{coord|30|9|N|76|58|W}}.{{sfnp|Hepper|1994|p=77}} Notes, Citations, and referencesNotes1. ^1 2 {{cite web|url=http://www.1812privateers.org/Great%20Britain/marque1793-1815.pdf|title=Letter of Marque, p.47 - accessed 25 July 2017.|publisher=|access-date=27 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161020052005/http://www.1812privateers.org/Great%20Britain/marque1793-1815.pdf|archive-date=20 October 2016|dead-url=yes|df=dmy-all}}
2. ^{{London Gazette|issue=15133|page=465|date=14 May 1799}}
Citations{{reflist|30em}}References- {{cite book|title=La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 A 1799|last=Demerliac|first=Alain|year=2004|publisher=Éditions Ancre|isbn=2-906381-24-1|language=French}}
- {{cite book|last=Hepper|first=David J.|authorlink=|year=1994|title=British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859|publisher=Jean Boudriot|location=Rotherfield|isbn=0-948864-30-3}}
- Leslie, Sir Stephen (1891) Dictionary of National Biography. (Smith, Elder).
- Norie, J. W. (1842) The naval gazetteer, biographer and chronologist; containing a history of the late wars from ... 1793 to ... 1801; and from ... 1803 to 1815, and continued, as to the biographical part to the present time. (London, C. Wilson).
- Williams, Gomer (1897; since republished) History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque: With an Account of the Liverpool Slave Trade. (W. Heinemann).
- {{cite book |first=Rif|last=Winfield|title=British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates|publisher=Seaforth|year=2008|isbn=1-86176-246-1}}
- Winfield, Rif & Stephen S Roberts (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786 - 1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. (Seaforth Publishing). {{ISBN|9781848322042}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Actif (1794)}} 5 : 1789 ships|Maritime incidents in 1794|Privateer ships of France|Captured ships|Sloops of the Royal Navy |