Name Hardi Commissioned October 1796 Name HMS Hardi | Launched c.1795 Captured April 1797 Acquired April 1797 by capture | |
HMS Hardi was a French privateer built at Cowes c. 1795 that the Royal Navy captured in 1797 and sold in 1800.
Florentin Lavallée commissioned Hardi at Brest in October 1796. She was armed with eighteen 8-pounder guns and had a crew of 130-164 men under the command of Captain Cousin.
Late in March 1797 Vice-Admiral Lord Kingsmill received intelligence that a French cruiser had been seen off the Skellocks on the coast of Ireland. Kingsmill dispatched HMS Hazard on 28 March, and on 1 April Hazard found the French vessel. After a chase of seven hours, Hazard caught her quarry, but only because the privateer had lost both topmasts. The privateer was the brig Hardi, of 18 guns and 130 men. (Another source gives her complement as 164 men.) Hardi had been built at Cowes, about two years earlier, for the Spaniards. Hardi had left Brest on 17 March and during her cruise had escaped two British frigates that had chased her. She had captured only one prize, a small Portuguese vessel of little value. The Navy classified Hardi as a sloop of 18 guns, though there is no record of her having active service.