HMS Curieux (1804)

A painting by Francis Sartorius Jr. depicting HMS Curieux capturing Dame Ernouf on 8 February 1805
History
France
Name	Curieux
Builder	Enterprise Ethéart, Saint Malo (Constructeur:François-Timothée Pestel)[1]
Laid down	October 1799
Launched	20 September 1800
Captured	4 February 1804
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Curieux
Acquired	4 February 1804
Fate	Wrecked, 22 September 1809
General characteristics [2]
Type	Corvette
Displacement	290 tons (French)
Tons burthen	3295⁄94 (bm)[a]
Length	97 ft 0 in (29.57 m) (overall) 77 ft 3 in (23.55 m) (keel)[b]
Beam	28 ft 6 in (8.69 m)
Depth of hold	13 ft 0 in (3.96 m)
Complement	French service: 94[1] British service: 67
Armament	French service: 16 × 6-pounder guns British service: 8 × 6-pounder guns + 10 × 24-pounder carronades

HMS Curieux was a French corvette launched in September 1800 at Saint-Malo to a design by François Pestel, and carrying sixteen 6-pounder guns. She was commissioned under Capitaine de frégate Joseph-Marie-Emmanuel Cordier. The British captured her in 1804 in a cutting-out action at Martinique. In her five-year British career Curieux captured several French privateers and engaged in two notable single-ship actions, also against privateers. In the first she captured Dame Ernouf; in the second, she took heavy casualties in an indecisive action with Revanche. In 1809 Curieux hit a rock; all her crew were saved but they had to set fire to her to prevent her recapture.

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