&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Eclair_(captured_1793)_RMG_J4582.png) Eclair, a plan taken off at Sheerness in April 1797
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 &sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Flag_of_French-Navy-Revolution.svg){kind=small} &sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:Ensign_of_France.svg){kind=small} France | |
| Name | Chasse maree No.? |
| Launched | 1785[1] |
| Renamed | Eclair in 1793 |
| Captured | May 1795 |
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:White_Ensign_of_Great_Britain_(1707%E2%80%931800).svg){kind=small} Great Britain | |
| Name | Eclair |
| Acquired | May 1795 by capture |
| Commissioned | July 1795 |
| Renamed | HMS Safety in 1802 |
| Fate | Broken up 1879 |
| General characteristics [1][2] | |
| Displacement | 150 tons (French) |
| Tons burthen | 107[3] (bm) |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 20 ft 4 in (6.2 m) |
| Depth of hold | 6 ft 11 in (2.1 m) |
| Complement | 35-53 (French service) |
| Armament | 3 × 18-pounder guns (French service) |
The French gun-vessel Eclair was one of 20 chasse-marées built in 1785 in southern Brittany for use as service craft in harbour construction at Cherbourg. In 1793 Martin or Jacques Fabien converted ten of them into chaloupes-canonnières (gun-vessels). One of these received the name Eclair. Sir Richard Strachan's squadron captured her in 1795 in Cartaret Bay, and the Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Eclair. She then sailed to the West Indies where she was probably out of service by 1801. In 1802 she was hulked under the name HMS Safety. She then served as a prison ship at Jamaica around 1808 to 1810. She may have been sold at Tortola in 1817/18, but in 1841 or so was brought back into service there as a receiving hulk. She was broken up in 1879.
- ^ a b Winfield & Roberts (2015), p. 276.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
NMM-WH-366061was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Colledge & Warlow (2006), p. 350.