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| Keywords: Francis Sartorius - His Majesty's frigate Clyde capturing the French frigate Vestale.jpg His Majesty's frigate šClyde ˜ capturing the French frigate šVestale ˜ whilst the French corvette šSagesse ˜ engages at long range 20th August 1799 oil canvas cm 22 8 29 8 object history credit line At 8 30am on 20th August 1799 the 38-gun British frigate Clyde Captain Charles Cunningham was cruising near the Cordovan lighthouse off Rochefort when she sighted two ships to the south-west Captain Cunningham gave chase immediately and by 11 00am had recognised both vessels as French When the two enemy ships separated soon afterwards Cunningham decided to go after the larger which when he caught up with her at 1 30pm revealed herself as the 36-gun frigate Vestale After a spirited action lasting almost two hours during which the Frenchman put up a gallant fight despite sustaining serious damage to her sails and rigging as well as to her hull below the water-line Vestale struck her colours and surrendered <br/> Throughout the engagement however the other enemy vessel the 20-gun corvette Sagesse stood off inshore and apart from firing a few desultory rounds did nothing to assist her consort Once Vestale surrendered Sagesse immediately crammed on more sail and fled the scene to take refuge in the Gironde estuary where Captain Cunningham wisely declined to follow In the event the captured Vestale was deemed too badly damaged to be assimilated into the Royal Navy but Captain Cunningham was nevertheless congratulated by his superiors for what was widely perceived as his classic 'textbook' action <ref>http //www christies com/lotfinder/LotDetailsPrintable aspx intObjectID 5127580 christies com</ref> reflist accession number Christie's online 5127580 PD-old-100 Francis Sartorius 18th-century sailing ships in paintings Sailing ships of the United Kingdom Sailing ships of the Royal Navy | ||||
