French frigate Sensible ( 1788 ) Sensible was a 32 - gun " Magicienne " - class frigate of the French Navy . The Royal Navy captured her in 1798 off Malta and took into service as HMS " Sensible " . She was lost in a grounding off Ceylon in 1802 . French Navy service . From November 1789 , she served at Martinique under " captaine de vaisseau " Durand de Braye ( or Durand d ' Ubraye ) . In September 1790 , she ferried Joséphine de Beauharnais and her daughter Hortense from Martinique to Toulon . In 1792 , she took part in operations against Sardinia . In 1793 , she was equipped as a bomb ship . On 9 December 1795 , " Sensible " , was part of Gantaume ' s squadron . " Sensible " , along with the corvettes " Sardine " and " Rossignol " , captured the 28 - gun in the neutral port of Smyrna . The French warships entered the harbour in disregard of its neutrality and forced " Nemesis " to surrender . Murray Maxwell ( then a midshipman ) was taken prisoner on this occasion . Under " lieutenant de vaisseau " ( later " capitaine de frégate " ) Escoffier , in March – April 1795 " Sensible " crossed the Aegean Sea , stopping at Tunis and Valletta on her way to Toulon . The next year she came under the command of " capitaine de frégate " Guillaume - François - Joseph Bourdé . He sailed " Sensible " from Toulon to Trieste via Corfu . She then cruised the Adriatic before returning to Corfu . " Sensible " was subsequently armed en flûte and used as a transport in the Mediterranean . In an action on 27 June 1798 , the 38 - gun HMS " Seahorse " captured her . " Sensible " lost 25 men killed and 55 wounded . " Seahorse " had two men killed and 16 men wounded ; the British report is that " Sensible " lost 18 men killed and 35 wounded , including Bourdé . Captain Edward James Foote of " Seahorse " further reported that " Sensible " had recently received copper sheathing and fastening , and a thorough repair at Toulon two months previously . At the time of her capture " Sensible " was carrying General of Division Baraguey D ' Hilliers , with his entourage . They were going to Toulon with a report on the capture of Malta . The British took her into service as HMS " Sensible " . The French Navy suspended Captain Bourdé on 31 July on suspicion of not having resisted adequately , and court - martialed him on 20 May 1799 for the loss of his ship . Acquitted , he was reinstated on 21 August . Royal Navy service . " Sensible " was placed under Commander John Baker Hay , who received his promotion to post captain in September . She was named and registered on 13 October . She arrived at Portsmouth on 25 November . There she was fitted as a troopship between June and August 1799 . She was commissioned in July under Captain Robert Sauce . " Sensible " shared with and in the proceeds of the recapture , on 11 July 1800 , of the " Pierfons " . On 14 May 1801 , HMS " Sensible " landed troops in Abu Qir Bay . Because " Sensible " served in the navy ' s Egyptian campaign ( 8 March to 2 September 1801 ) , her officers and crew qualified for the clasp " Egypt " to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants . Loss . On 2 March 1802 , as she sailed off Ceylon , she grounded , having been unable to turn quickly enough once breakers were sighted . She had to be abandoned as a wreck after 16 hours of efforts to lighten her . She had run into a shoal off Mullaitivu due to negligent navigation . ( Earlier had warned Sauce that his reckoning was off by 40 miles . ) The subsequent court martial severely reprimanded Sauce and moved his name to the bottom of the list of Commanders . The court martial also dismissed the service the master , James O ' Conner .