French frigate Topaze (1805)
Topaze was a French Gloire-class frigate built at Nantes. She was laid down in 1803, launched on 1 March 1805, and commissioned in September 1805. In June 1805 she sailed from Nantes for Fort-de-France to carry new instructions to Admiral Villeneuve, but the fleet had already turned toward Europe.
On 19 July 1805 Topaze led a small squadron that destroyed HMS Blanche off Porto Rico. The other ships in the group were the 22-gun corvette Département des Landes, the 18-gun Torche, and the 16-gun brig-corvette Faune. In August the British captured Faune; Torche surrendered after a token resistance to Goliath, and Topaze was chased by Raisonnable. The engagement on 17 August was indecisive, with Baudin deciding not to try boarding Raisonnable after weighing Topaze’s duty to carry Blanche’s crew.
Topaze met her end in British hands on 22 January 1809 when Cleopatra captured her. The Royal Navy took her in as HMS Jewel, and later renamed her HMS Alcmene after the loss of the ship Alcmene that year.
As Alcmene, she had an active career. She shared in the prize for the capture of George on 5 October 1809; on 23 December 1813 she captured the Cerf-class schooner Fleche off Corsica; on 11 April 1814 she, with Pembroke and Aigle, captured Fortune, Notre Dame de Leusainte, and a settee; and on 13 May 1815 she was present at the surrender of Naples during the Neapolitan War. On 6 July 1815 she helped capture the French schooner Antelope off Sardinia.
In 1814 the Admiralty offered Topaze for sale, described as a 38-gun ship lying at Portsmouth, but she did not sell and was broken up in February 1816.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 17:36 (CET).