French ship D'Hautpoul
1807 Téméraire-class third-rate ship of the line
D'Hautpoul was a 74-gun Téméraire-class ship of the line built for the French Navy during the first decade of the 19th century. The ship was launched at Lorient on 2 September 1807. She was previously named Alcide and Courageux.
French service
On 16 February 1809 Captain Amand Leduc, Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, commanded D'Hautpoul on her maiden voyage, a mission to Martinique with reinforcements and supplies, as the flagship of a squadron of three 74-gun ships. (The other vessels were Courageux and Polonais), and two frigates, under the overall command of Commodore Amable Troude.) Learning of the capture of Martinique, Troude's squadron turned back but was pursued by the British.
D'Hautpoul was captured by her now-British sister ship HMS Pompée, on 17 April 1809 off Puerto Rico after a chase over three nights and two days by Pompée, HMS Recruit, and HMS Neptune. Recruit hung on the tail of the French squadron and managed to cripple D'Hautpoul's mizzen mast, so Pompée could bring her to action and capture her after exchanging fire for 75 minutes. Between 80 and 90 men from D'Hautpoul were killed or wounded, including several officers.
British service
Taken as a prize, she was renamed Abercrombie, and was briefly given to the commander of Recruit, Charles Napier, who was made post captain for his part in the action, as acting captain. Captain William Fahie of Pompée, who had fallen ill after capturing her, then replaced Napier.
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This entry incorporates text from “French ship D'Hautpoul” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.