Name Bienfaisant Acquired 25 July 1758 Launched 1754 Beam 13 m | Name HMS Bienfaisant Fate Broken up, 1814 Length 49 m | |
Captured 25 July 1758, by Royal Navy Notes Participated in
Battle of Cape St Vincent | ||
Bienfaisant was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1754.
She was captured by the Royal Navy on the night of 25 July 1758 during a cutting out expedition ordered by Admiral Edward Boscawen during the 1758 Siege of Louisbourg. Bienfaisant and the 74-gun Prudent were the last remaining ships of the line of the French squadron in Louisbourg harbour. Prudent was aground and so was burnt but Bienfaisant was successfully cut out by men commanded by Commander George Balfour, of HMS Aetna. The action was decisive moment of the siege as the fortress surrendered the next day.
British Service
The captured Bienfaisant was commissioned as the third rate HMS Bienfaisant. She took part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1780 and the capture of the Comte de Artois off Ireland in August.
She participated, under the command of Captain Braithwaite, in the 1781 Battle of Dogger Bank with reduced armament on her lower deck as the last ship in the line.
Bienfaisant was broken up in 1814.