HMS Athenienne

Career (Malta)
Name:	San Giovanni
Namesake:	Saint John
Builder:	La Valette
Laid down:	1796
Captured:	11 June 1798 by the French Navy
Career (France)
Name:	Athénien
Namesake:	Athens
Launched:	October 1798
In service:	December 1799
Captured:	4 September 1800, by Royal Navy
Career (UK)
Class and type:	Third-rate
Name:	Athenienne
Acquired:	4 September 1800
Fate:	Wrecked, 20 October 1806
General characteristics
Tons burthen:	1,404 long tons (1,427 t)
Length:	164 ft (50 m)
Beam:	44 ft 6 in (13.56 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Armament:	64 guns of various weights of shot

HMS Athenienne was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was the former Maltese ship San Giovanni, captured by the French and recommissioned as Athénien, and eventually taken by the Royal Navy after the surrender of Valletta, on 4 September 1800.

In 1805, under the command of Captain John Griffard, she sailed to Gibraltar with stores and supplies for the fleet after the Battle of Trafalgar.

French career

San Giovanni was captured while nearing completion at her building site in La Valette. She was launched four months later, and taken into French service as Athénien. She was appointed to the medical services of the fleet, and carried out research on the diseases affecting the French fleet in the Mediterranean.

Athénien was captured when Malta fell to the British at the end of the Siege of Malta, and brought into British service as HMS Athenienne.

Loss

In December 1800, command of Athenienne was given to Sir Thomas Livingstone, he accompanied Rear Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren to the coast of Egypt in search of a French squadron under Admiral Ganteaume east of Sardinia. The French squadron escaped.

Athenienne then joined the squadron under Lord Keith of Alexandria until she sprang a leak and returned to Malta for repairs, after which she was sent to cruise the island of Elba until the Peace of Amiens led to her to being recalled when her officers and crew were paid off at Portsmouth in October 1802.

On 16 October 1806, Athenienne sailed from Gibraltar for Malta under the command of Captain Robert Raynsford, with a crew of 470. In the evening of 20 October, she ran aground on a submerged reef, the Esquirques (37°47′N 10°46′E / 37.783°N 10.767°E / 37.783; 10.767), in the Strait of Sicily.

The ship's masts were cut away to prevent her rolling on her side, but nevertheless she flooded to the lower deck ports within half an hour, then rolled over. Captain Raynsford had had an improvised raft constructed, unfortunately two of the ship's boats were swamped when launching and two others deserted the wreck; after much trouble the ship's launch was freed and got into the water. Over 100 survivors were crammed into her and she was picked up the following day by a Danish brig.

In all, 347 people died, including Captain Raynsford, while 141 men and two women were rescued.

See also

• List of ships captured in the 19th century
• Glossary of nautical terms

Sources

• Terence Grocott - Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras, 1997 (reprinted 2002 ISBN 1-84067-164-5)
• Michael Phillips. Sailing Ships of the Royal Navy, A5. Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 20 January 2007.
• Gilly, William O.S. (1850). Narratives of shipwrecks of the Royal navy between 1793 and 1849. London: John W. Parker. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pDsIAAAAQAAJ. 
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671 - 1870. p. 54. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922. ^{[self-published source?]}