French frigate Médée (1741)

The Médée was a French frégate du deuxième ordre, or 26-gun frigate, built in 1740. She is widely considered to be the inspiration for a long line of similar sailing frigates, and was the first ship captured by the British Navy in the War of the Austrian Succession.

Construction
She was designed by Blaise Ollivier, with 26 x 8-pounder guns, and was launched in February 1741 at Brest. She is regarded as the first of the 'true' frigate designs: she was built with two decks, but only the upper deck mounted guns. These guns were relatively heavy, and the higher mounting meant that they could be used in rough seas.

Capture & Change
She was captured in the English Channel by HMS Dreadnought (1691) on 4 April 1744 (Julian calendar date), and briefly served as HMS Medea in the British Navy before being sold off in March 1745, becoming the privateer Boscawen, named after the Captain of the Dreadnought. Although the Navy Board had the opportunity to purchase her, they decided not to retain her, in spite of her innovative design qualities; many French ships of the time were not designed for durability and she was not strongly built. Sure enough, she fell apart in the open sea after approximately 18 months. However, her speed and size provided the Bedford Board of Admiralty with the arguments needed to change British frigate design in future.