HMS Auguste (1705)

HMS Auguste was the French 54-gun Auguste built in Brest in 1704 that the British captured in 1705. In her brief French service she captured two British men-of-war. She was wrecked in 1716.

French service
Together with the 54-gun Jason (1704), she captured Coventry in September 1704. Then, on 12 November, together with Jason and the 26-gun frigate Valeur (1704), she captured the third rate Elizabeth 30 miles south of the Isles of Scilly. In early 1705 she and 44-gun fourth rate Thetis were escorting Gloutonne, Elephant and Jean et Jacques (which were armed en flute), when the convoy ran into a squadron under Admiral George Byng at Cape Finisterre. Only Auguste escaped.

Chatham, together with Medway and Triton, captured her on 19 August 1705.

British service
Between 175 and 1706 she was under the command of Captain Robert Bokenham, sailing in Admiral Hardy's squadron. His replacement in 1707 was Captain Thomas Scott. The next year, she joined Admiral Byng's fleet in the North Sea and Channel. In 1709, Lord Duffus replaced Scott. From 1710 to 1713, she was under the command of Captain Robert Thompson in the Dunkirk squadron (1710), the Mediterranean (1711), and the West Indies (1712).

Loss
In 1716, while under the command of Captain Robert Johnson, Auguste was in the Baltic. She had sailed from Nore on 18 May with a squadron under Sir John Norris to join a combined English-Dutch-Danish-Russian fleet in a demonstration to Sweden that Britain and her allies would resist Swedish interference with trade.

In November she was returning to England from Copenhagen with a convoy. As the weather worsened, the convoy took shelter on the evening of 9 November at Læsø island. During the night Auguste's cables broke and she sailed out to sea to avoid being driven on shore. On the night of 10 November a gale drove her ashore on the nearby island of Anholt. Captain Johnson, his officers, and at least 250 of his men were saved. Another 40 may have landed in Sweden. In all, most of her people were saved.