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French ship Diomède (1803)
Diomède was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy built at Lorient and launched in 1799 as Union . She was renamed Diomède in 1803. During the War of the Third Coalition, Diomède was part of a French force that sailed from Brest, France, on 13 December 1805 for what was planned as a 14-month cruise to attack British merchant shipping while avoiding combat with major Royal Navy forces.[1][2] On 15 December 1805, the French force split into two squadrons which proceeded independently from one another.[1] Diomède was part of the squadron under the overall command of Vice-Admiral Corentin-Urbain Leissègues, which headed across the Atlantic Ocean bound for the Caribbean.[1] During the voyage, Diomède suffered serious damage in a storm off the Azores in late December 1805.[3][4] She arrived with most of the squadron at French-held Santo Domingo on Hispaniola on 20 January 1806, where Leissègues ordered the ships to be recaulked after their long and difficult transatlantic voyage.[4][5] On the morning of 6 February 1806, a Royal Navy squadron under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth arrived off Santo Domingo to attack Leissègues's force.[3] Although several of Leissègues's ships were not yet ready for sea,[6] Leissègues ordered them to get underway and sail westward along the coast of Hispaniola toward Nizao.[7] In the resulting Battle of San Domingo, the French squadron maintained close formation, and the five French ships of the line formed a line of battle with Diomède third in line behind Alexandre and Impérial and ahead of Jupiter and Brave.[3] Duckworth ordered his squadron to concentrate fire on the three leading French ships of the line,[3] and accordingly the British 74-gun third-rate ship of the line HMS Spencer opened fire on Impérial and Diomède simultaneously.[8] As the engagement at the head of the French line became confused, with ships of the two sides intermingled and smoke restricting visibility, Diomède came across the 98-gun second-rate ship of the line HMS Atlas and fired a heavy broadside into her, after which Atlas engaged her at close range.[9][10] Spencer also resumed firing at Diomède.[9] Impérial turned toward shore and Diomède followed her, and late in the morning both ships ran aground parallel to the beach on a reef 1 nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) off the coast of Hispaniola between Nizao and Point Catalan, suffering severe hull damage and losing all of their masts.[11][12] As the British ships moved out of gunnery range, the crews of Diomède and Impérial assembled on deck to abandon ship.[12] Diomède had suffered about 250 casualties.[13][14] Leissègues ordered Diomède and Impérial burned as soon as their crews had completed their abandonment of the ships,[4] but before that order could be carried out, boat crews from the fifth-rate frigates HMS Acasta and HMS Magicienne boarded them on 8 February 1806 and captured them without meeting any resistance.[15] The British boarding party took 150 prisoners aboard Diomède including her commanding officer, Captain Jean-Baptiste Henry, and then burned her wreck.[13][14] References
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