page_title: HMS Mediator (1782)
section_title: Battling Preneuse
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Mediator (1782) / Storeship / Battling Preneuse
caption_attribution_description: Naval Battle in the Algoa Bay, 20-21 September 1799. French frigate Preneuse against HMS Camel and Surprise (a privateer).label QS:Lde,"Seeschlacht in der Alagoa Bucht, Südafrika" label QS:Len,"Naval Battle in the Algoa Bay, 20-21 September 1799. French frigate Preneuse against HMS Camel and Surprise (a privateer)." label QS:Lfr,"Bataille Navale de la Baie d'Alagoa" Surprise in this picture was a privateer sailing in African waters, not the RN vessel "HMS Surprise (1796)" sailing in the Caribbean.
context_page_description: HMS Mediator was a Roebuck-class 44-gun fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She was built and served during the American War of Independence, but was reduced to a storeship and renamed HMS Camel in 1788. She spent the French Revolutionary and part of the Napoleonic Wars in this capacity before being broken up in 1810.
  Built as the revival of a design that had fallen out of favour as naval architecture developed, Mediator was intended to operate in the shallow waters of the North American coastline. Her first significant action was fought off the European coastline however, when her captain, James Luttrell attacked and defeated an American and French convoy off Ferrol, taking two ships as prizes. Resisting an attempt by his prisoners to seize his ship, Luttrell returned home to public applause and praise from King George III. Mediator's next commander, Cuthbert Collingwood, was a close friend of Horatio Nelson, and served with him in the West Indies. There he helped Nelson to enforce the Navigation Acts, causing controversy with the local civil and naval authorities. In 1788 she left front-line service for good, and was converted into a storeship, being renamed Camel.
context_section_description: Camel had been used to carry stores and supplies to the Cape for the use of the army under General Francis Dundas, which was fighting the Third Frontier War. On 20 September she was anchored in Algoa Bay with the 16-gun sloop HMS Rattlesnake. Both captains, Lee of Camel and Samuel Gooch of Rattlesnake, were onshore with a number of their men, supporting the army. At 4 pm a strange sail was seen approaching the bay, flying the Danish flag. The ship entered the bay and approached the British ships, where upon it was approached by a guard boat from Camel, who planned to board her. As they approached, the British sailors saw armed men aboard and realised the ship was a large frigate; they immediately returned to Camel. A British privateer schooner, Surprise, had also passed by the strange ship, and discovered she was a French frigate. Surprise sailed for Rattlesnake to report this. With Lee and Gooch ashore, command devolved to First Lieutenant William Fothergill of Rattlesnake. After warning shots fired from both Camel and Rattlesnake elicited no response, both ships prepared for action. By 8.30 pm the French frigate, which was the 40-gun Preneuse under Captain Jean-Marthe-Adrien l'Hermite, had manoeuvred close to Rattlesnake. Fothergill fired a broadside at her, supported by Camel, and a general action broke out. The ships exchanged fire for over three hours, with Preneuse concentrating her fire on Camel, until having sustained a shot below the waterline and having six feet of water in the hold, Camel's crew were forced to abandon the guns to work the pumps.
  Preneuse then turned her attention to Rattlesnake, and a fierce cannonade was exchanged until 3.30 am on the morning of 21 September, when Preneuse stopped firing and bore away, to the surprise of the British. She then left the bay and sailed away, ending the engagement. Both Camel and Rattlesnake had sustained damage to their masts, sails and rigging, and had several holes in their hulls. Casualties were comparatively light however, with six men wounded on Camel and two men killed, one man mortally wounded and six or seven slightly wounded on Rattlesnake. Both Lee and Gooch had made several attempts to return to their ship, but were unable to launch their boats due to the raging surf on the beach. Seeing Preneuse bear away apparently damaged, Lee sent news of the attack on to Table Bay. The 54-gun HMS Jupiter put to sea to intercept the French ship, but Preneuse was able to repel her after bad weather prevented Jupiter from outmaneuvering Preneuse. The 74-gun HMS Tremendous and the 50-gun HMS Adamant finally caught up with Preneuse on 11 December 1799, driving her ashore and causing her destruction.
caption: Algoa Bay, 20–21 September 1799. French frigate Preneuse against HMS Camel and the privateer Surprise
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