Northumberland

Posted by Albert Parker on Saturday 16th of July 2022 05:43

I should have updated my 2016 comment long ago. There was a third French ship present, but she was not a warship. She was a French merchantman named /Heureux/, which had been captured by a British privateer and recaptured by /Mars/ and /Content/ on their outward voyage to the West Indies, also /Heureux/'s original destination. Captain Conflans, senior French officer, had put a petty officer on her since the privateer had removed all the French crew members who knew how to navigate her. He fired two "broadsides," probably a handful of 3- or 4-poundes, into the stern of /Northumberland/, reported only in Conflans report of the incident to Navy Minister Maurepas. (Report of Capitaine de vaisseau Conflans, Archives Nationales, Marine, B4-56, fos. 283–86.)

Posted by Albert Parker on Tuesday 23rd of February 2016 02:09

NORTHUMBERLAND WAS CAPTURED BY MARS AND CONTENT ONLY!
On the date of Northumberland’s capture, Vénus was hundreds of miles/kilometers away in the English Channel.
On the date of Northumberland’s capture, Comte d’Aché, given by many English accounts as the captain of Vénus, was in command of Auguste, 52.
When Northumberland came out of fog bank after separating from Rear-Admiral Charles Hardy’s fleet, her officers sighted three unknown ships that they took to be two French ships of the line and a frigate. At the same time, the officers of Mars and Content saw two ships in Northumberland’s direction. A first-hand account of the action by an educated member of Northumberland’s crew, A True and Authentick Narrative of the Action Between the Northumberland and Three French Men of War, describes the action between Northumberland on the one hand and Mars and Content on the other, but does not mention any involvement by a third French ship. After the capture, the author of this widely cited pamphlet describes the repairs to Northumberland and Content and the voyage back to Brest but does not mention a third ship. A similar account, probably by the same author, was published in the popular monthly, The Gentleman’s Magazine.
The name of “Vénus” for the supposed third French ship first appears in print in the 1750’s, and was continued in later British naval histories up through 1920. David Hepper, British Warship Losses, who read unpublished court-martial proceedings, does not claim a third French ship was involved. D’Aché as captain of Vénus first appeared later in the 18th century. A collection of French documents includes reports from the captains of Mars and Content, Hardy’s order of battle (captured on Northumberland), details of the damage to the French ships, and nothing from the captain of Vénus. A contemporary official list of the assignments of French warships in April 1744 has Vénus escorting coastal convoys between Le Havre and Brest, while d’Aché was cruising off the coast of Ireland in Auguste.
The “third French ship” is a mistake by the officers of Northumberland—probably a passing merchantman that got out of the area as quickly as possible. Whether the second British ship sighted by the French was the same merchantman or a second one is impossible to determine. It makes haughty Englishmen feel better to think that one of their ships of the line was captured by three instead of two enemy ships, but IT IS NOT SO!
Vénus was probably added to late 18th-century British accounts by writers who believed the “three ships” baloney but didn’t know what the third ship was because there was none. Vénus had been part of the French fleet that had sailed up and down the English Channel earlier in 1744, and Comte d’Aché had been her commander at that time. Both were good guesses, IF THERE HAD BEEN A THIRD SHIP; but there was not.