HMS Seaforth was the French privateer Dame Ernouf, which HMS Curieux captured in 1805. The Royal Navy took her into service, but she foundered later that year.
Capture
On 8 February 1805, Curieux chased the French privateer Dame Ernouf (or Madame Ernouf) for twelve hours before Curieux was able to bring her to action.[1] After forty minutes of hard fighting the captain of Dame Ernouf, which had a crew almost twice as many crew members as Curieux, manoeuvred to attempt a boarding. Commander George Edmund Byron Bettesworth anticipated this and put his helm a-starboard, catching Dame Ernouf's jib-boom so that he could rake her. Unable to fight back, Dame Ernouffstruck.[2] The action cost Curieux five men killed and four wounded, including Bettesworth, who took a hit in his head from a musket ball. Dame Ernouf had 30 men killed and 41 wounded. She carried 16 French long 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 120. This was the same armament as Curieux carried, but in a smaller vessel. Bettesworth opined that she had fought so gallantly because her captain was also a part-owner.[1] She was 20 days out of Guadeloupe and had taken one brig, which, however, Nimrod had recaptured.[1]
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