HMS Blanche (1800)

1803 plan of the Apollo class
History
United Kingdom
Name	Blanche
Ordered	18 January 1799
Builder	Deptford Dockyard
Laid down	February 1800
Launched	2 October 1800
Completed	17 January 1801
Commissioned	19 November 1800
Fate	Destroyed, 19 July 1805
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Fifth-rate Apollo-class frigate
Tons burthen	95086⁄94 (bm)
Length	145 ft 1 in (44.2 m) (upper deck) 121 ft 9+1⁄2 in (37.1 m) (keel)
Beam	38 ft 3+3⁄4 in (11.7 m)
Draught	10 ft 5 in (3.2 m) (forward) 14 ft 1 in (4.3 m) (aft)
Depth of hold	13 ft 3 in (4 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Complement	264
Armament	UD: 26 × 18-pounder guns QD: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 4 × 32-pounder carronades

HMS Blanche was a 36-gun fifth-rate Apollo-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was commissioned in 1800 by Captain Graham Hamond, under whom on 2 April 1801 Blanche fought as part of the frigate reserve at the Battle of Copenhagen. She spent the remainder of the French Revolutionary Wars serving in the English Channel. When the Napoleonic Wars began in 1803 Blanche was sent to serve in the West Indies under the command of Captain Zachary Mudge. There the frigate participated in the Blockade of Saint-Domingue and an unsuccessful invasion of Curacao, capturing upwards of twenty-four vessels.

Blanche was sailing off Puerto Rico on 19 July 1805 when she was attacked by a French squadron of four ships, led by Captain François-André Baudin in the 40-gun frigate Le Topaze. After a battle lasting forty-five minutes Mudge surrendered Blanche, having had eight men killed. The frigate was beginning to sink, and later in the day the French set Blanche on fire before sinking her. Two of the four French warships were captured a month later, while Mudge was released after Topaze reached Portugal. Blanche's loss is controversial; while Rear-Admiral John Sutton praised Mudge and his crew for their defence of the outnumbered ship, historians such as William James have criticised the British performance as lacklustre and undistinguished.