French frigate Topaze (1805)

The Topaze was a Gloire class 44-gun frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1809 and she the served with the Royal Navy under the name Alcmene until she was broken up in 1816.

French service
She was built in Nantes in 1803 on plans by Pierre Forfait and launched on 1 March 1805. She was put into service in September.

She departed from Nantes in June 1805 for Fort-de-France to carry new instructions to Admiral Villeneuve, but failed to reach him as the fleet was already heading for Europe. On 19 July she was the lead vessel of a squadron of four vessels that captured the Blanche. The other three were the 22-gun corvette Départment des Landes, the 18-gun Torche, and the 16-gun brig-corvette Faune.

On 14 August, the trailing Faune was captured by a British cruise comprising the 74-gun HMS Goliath (1781), HMS Camilla (1776) and HMS Raisonnable. Two days later, the British caught up with the three remaining ships, and Baudin had to abandon Torche, which surrendered after a token fight against Goliath.

Topaze was chased by Raisonnable, which she engaged in the morning of 17. The two ships were becalmed at first and unable to manoeuver, until Topaze caught some breeze. Baudin prepared to board Raisonnable, but abandoned the project after considering that his frigate was ferrying the crew of Blanche; he later told Captain Mudge to testify that Raisonnable would have been taken, had it not been for his presence on Topaze.

On 22 January 1809, as she ferried flour to Cayenne under Pierre-Nicolas Lahalle, she met HMS Cleopatra, and was captured in the subsequent Action of 22 January 1809. The British took her into the Royal Navy as HMS Jewel.

British service
After the loss of Alcmene, Jewel was renamed Alcmene later that year.

On 13 May 1815 Alcmene, with Captain Jeremiah Coghlan in command, was present at the surrender of Naples during the Neapolitan War. A British squadron, consisting of Alcmene, and more importantly the 74-gun HMS Tremendous (1784), the sloop HMS Partridge (1809), and the brig-sloop HMS Grasshopper (1813) blockaded the port and destroyed all the gunboats there. Parliament voted a grant of £150,000 to the officers and men of the squadron for the property captured at the time, with the money being paid in May 1819.

Fate
She was broken up in 1816.