Service in the Channel She was initially under the command of Captain
Charles Tyler, but passed under Captain
Sir Charles Hamilton in July 1794. Hamilton sailed her back to
Chatham, where she arrived on 22 November and was registered as a Royal Navy ship on 30 May 1795. She was then commissioned in June that year under Captain
Sir Harry Neale. Neale was to command her for the next five years.
St Fiorenzo was among the 25 British warships in the fleet under the command of Admiral
John Colpoys that shared in the capture on 2 November 1796 of the French privateer
Franklyn. Twenty-six days later,
St Fiorenzo was in company with when they captured the French brig
Anne. At some point,
St Fiorenzo also captured the brig
Cynthia.
Capture of Résistance and Constance On 9 March 1797
St Fiorenzo was sailing in company with Captain
John Cooke's , when they sighted two sails heading for
Brest. These turned out to be the French frigate and the
corvette Constance, returning from the short-lived, quixotic and unsuccessful
French raid on
Fishguard in
Wales, where they had landed troops. There were no casualties or damage on either of the British ships.
Resistance had ten men killed and nine wounded;
Constance had eight men killed and six wounded. Further successes followed later that year. She captured the French
privateer lugger Unité off
The Owers on 3 June 1797.
Unité was armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 58 men commanded by Citizen Charles Roberts. She was three days out of
Morlaix without having captured anything. Then on 1 July
St Fiorenzo captured the French privateer lugger
Castor off the
Scilly Isles.
Castor too had been armed with 14 guns, all of which she had thrown overboard during the chase in an attempt to lighten herself and so gain speed, and had a crew of 57 men. She was 18 days out of
Saint Malo and in that time had captured the brig
Resolution, which had been carrying a cargo of salt.
St Fiorenzo and shared in the capture in November and December 1797 of the French brigs
Minerva and
Succès. In addition to the capture of the privateer
Succès on 14 December,
St Fiorenzo and
Clyde captured the privateer
Dorade two days later. The actual captor of
Dorade was
Clyde.
Dorade was from Bordeaux and was pierced for 18 guns, though she only had 12. She had been out 50 days and had been cruising off the Azores and Madeira, but had captured nothing. She and her crew of 93 men were on their way home when
Clyde captured her. Unfortunately, the commander of the prize crew hoisted too much sail with the result that
Dorade overturned, drowning all 19 members of the prize crew.
St Fiorenzo, and shared in the recapture of the American brig
Betty on 16 February 1798. On 9 March
St Fiorenzo recaptured the brig
Cynthia. Almost a month later, on 7 April,
St Fiorenzo, in company with
Impetueux, recaptured the
Ulysses.
Ulysses, Smith, master, had been on her way from Santo Domingo to London when the French privateer
Grande Buonaparte, of 22 guns and 200 men, captured her on 2 April.
St Fiorenzo sent
Ulysses into Plymouth. On 23 May
St Fiorenzo captured the pram (
chasse maree)
Maria. two days later,
St Fiorenzo and
Impetueux captured the ship
Fair American. On 1 June, she added the brig
Zeniphe to her list of captures, and then six days later, two empty sloops. ,
St Fiorenzo, and shared in the capture of the French sloop
Marie Catharine.
St Fiorenzo,
Phaeton,
Anson and
Stagg shared in the proceeds of the capture on 23 June of
Jonge Marius. That same day
Phaeton captured the
Speculation;
San Fiorenzos officers entitled to first or second-class shares in prize money shared by agreement. On 29 June , and chased a French frigate.
Pique and
Jason chased her down and captured her in the Breton Passage on 30 June 1798, after an engagement in which the French suffered some 170 men killed. The French vessel was , which the Royal Navy took into service under her existing name. In the fight
Jason,
Pique and
Seine ran aground.
Mermaid arrived and retrieved
Jason, but
Pique had to be destroyed.
St Fiorenzo too arrived and was instrumental in recovering
Seine. On 9 November,
St Fiorenzo captured the French privateer
Resource. On 15 December
St Fiorenzo captured the Spanish brig
Nostra Senora Del Carmen y Animas. In late 1798 or early 1799,
San Fiorenzo, , ,
Clyde,
Mermaid, and , shared in the capture of the
chasse maree Marie Perotte and a sloop of unknown name, as well as the recapture of
Sea Nymphe and
Mary. On 9 March 1799,
St Fiorenzo and
Clyde captured the French sloop
St Joseph. Three days later
Triton,
St Fiorenzo, and captured the French merchant ship
Victoire. On 9 April 1799, after reconnoitering two French frigates in
L'Orient,
St Fiorenzo and sailed towards
Belle Île. Conditions were hazy and although Neale had sighted some vessels, it was only when he had passed the island that he discovered three French frigates and a large gun vessel. At that instant a sudden
squall carried away
Amelias
main-top-mast and
fore and
mizzen top-gallant masts; the fall of the main-top-mast tore away much of the
mainsail from the yard. Neale shortened
St Fiorenzos sail and ordered
Amelia to keep close to
St Fiorenzo to maintain the
weather gage, and to prepare for battle. An action commenced but the French vessels avoided close-quarter action and, although the British ships came under fire from shore batteries, they had to bear down on the French three times to engage them. After nearly two hours the French
wore ship and sailed away to take refuge in the
Loire, with the gun-vessel returning to Belle Île. That evening
St Fiorenzo captured a French brig and learned that the French frigates were , and . Then on 13 April,
St Fiorenzo captured the French ship
Entreprenant. On 17 April
St Fiorenzo returned to Plymouth, bringing with her a French brig that she had captured. The French vessel had been sailing from San Domingo to
Lorient with a cargo of sugar and coffee.
St Fiorenzo had also captured another French brig, sailing in ballast, but she had not yet arrived. Captain Charles Paterson took over command in January 1801, serving in the Mediterranean.
St Fiorenzo, , , , , and
hired armed cutter shared in the capture on 11 and 12 August 1801 of the Prussian brigs
Vennerne and
Elizabeth. On 30 September 1801
St Fiorenzo captured the schooner
Worcester. In May 1802 Captain
Joseph Bingham succeeded Paterson. He would serve as
St Fiorenzos commander until 1804.
East Indies Bingham sailed to the
Cape of Good Hope, and spent the next couple of years operating in the Indian Ocean. On 14 January 1804
St Fiorenzo gave chase to the French naval
chasse-marée and
aviso Passe-Partout off Mount Dilly on the
Malabar Coast. When the wind began to fail, Bingham sent three of his boats after the quarry. Once alongside, in two minutes the British had captured the French vessel, despite fire from two brass six-pounder guns, six brass
swivel guns and small arms. Out of her 25-man crew,
Passe-Portout had two dead and five seriously wounded, including the captain, who was mortally wounded; the British suffered only one man slightly wounded. Bingham discovered that the French had outfitted
Passe Partout to land three officers on the coast to incite the
Mahratta states to attack the British. Bingham passed on the intelligence with the result that the British at
Poona were able to capture the Frenchmen. Bingham's successor was Captain
Walter Bathurst, who commanded
St Fiorenzo in 1805. Captain
Henry Lambert (acting), replaced Bathurst.
Psyché On 13 February 1805
St Fiorenzo found the and two vessels that looked like merchantmen, off
Vishakhapatnam. On the evening of the 14th,
St Fiorenzo recaptured one of the merchantmen,
Thetis, which was a prize to
Psyché and which the French had abandoned. He put a prize crew aboard her and then engaged the other two vessels. After a fierce battle of more than three hours, Captain Bergeret, the French commander of
Psyché, sent a boat to announce that she had struck her colours. She had lost 57 men killed and 70 men wounded;
St Fiorenzo had 12 killed and 56 wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "San Fiorenzo 14 Feby. 1805" to any surviving claimants from the action. During the engagement the third vessel,
Equivoque, occasionally intervened, firing at
St Fiorenzo. She was a privateer of ten guns and a crew of forty men under the command of a lieutenant. She was the former local ship
Pidgeon, which Bergeret had captured and fitted out as a privateer. She escaped. Hardinge was patrolling when, after having passed three
East Indiamen, he spotted a frigate that would not identify itself.
St Fiorenzo sailed towards the Frenchman, who attempted to escape. The merchants, shipowners, and underwriters of Bombay voted the sum of £500 to be "distributed to the Sufferers in the Action on the 8th March 1808". Sixteen men died without receiving their portion and the grantors paid for a notice in the
London Gazette calling on the relatives of the men to claim their shares. By September 1818, no one had come forward for the money due for eight seamen and marines; the Treasury agreed to hold £160 in trust (£20 per man) should any relative come forward later. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "San Fiorenzo 8 March 1808" to any surviving claimants from the action. Hardinge's successor was Captain
John Bastard, who commanded
St Fiorenzo until she was paid off later in 1808.
Later career and fate St Fiorenzo was then fitted out at
Woolwich for service in the
Baltic, under the command of Henry Matson. She took part in the
Walcheren Campaign in 1809. Her crew therefore qualified for the prize money from the expedition.
St Fiorenzo was then refitted as a 22-gun
troopship and sent to
Lisbon under Commander Edmund Knox. She was further fitted in 1812, this time to serve as a
receiving ship at Woolwich, before being laid up in ordinary at Chatham. Her final service was as a
lazarette at
Sheerness, where she remained between 1818 and 1837. She was broken up at
Deptford in September 1837, after 43 years with the Royal Navy. ==Notes==