French ship Vestale (1756)

Scale model on display at the Musée de la Marine in Toulon
History
France
Name	Vestale
Namesake	Vestal Virgin
Builder	Le Havre, plans by Jean-Joseph Ginoux
Launched	1756
Captured	by Britain, 8 January 1761
Great Britain
Name	Flora
Acquired	1761
Fate	Scuttled 5 August 1778
France
Name	Flore américaine
Acquired	1784 by purchase
Renamed	Citoyenne Française (April 1793); reverted to Flore in the French Navy
Captured	By Britain, 7–8 September 1798
Fate	Sold for breaking up
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Blonde-class frigate
Displacement	900 tons (French)
Tons burthen	411 (French; "of load")
Complement	Navy: 181–184 1793–95:254 (220 at capture)
Armament	Originally: 26 × 8-pounder long guns + 4 × 4-pounder long guns 1784: 26 × 12-pounder guns (Upper deck; UD) + 6 ×6-pounder guns (Spar Deck; SD) 1784: 26 × 8-pounder guns (UD) + 6 ×6-pounder guns (SD) 1793:26 × 8-pounder guns (UD) + 8 × 6-pounder guns (SD)
Armour	Timber

Vestale was a Blonde-class 30-gun frigate of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1761, but had to scuttle her in 1778 to avoid having the French recapture her. She was refloated and sold to the French in 1784. She returned to wartime service in 1794 as a privateer. The British recaptured her in 1798 and broke her up thereafter.