The French brig Palinure was a 16-gun vessel launched in 1804, serving as the nameship of the Palinure-class brigs in the French Navy. Constructed for combat and dispatch purposes, she was commissioned on 20 May 1804 under capitaine de frégate Jance. The vessel’s dimensions and specific construction details are not provided in the source, but as a 16-gun brig, she would have been a relatively agile and maneuverable vessel suitable for a variety of roles including escort, reconnaissance, and combat. In her early service, Palinure notably captured the vessel Carnation before being herself captured by the British. She participated in Allemand’s expedition of 1805, demonstrating her active engagement in French naval operations during the Napoleonic Wars. On 22 April 1808, Palinure was involved in a notable engagement at Grande Bourg Bay off Marie Galante, alongside the brig Pilade. During this encounter with the British schooner Goree and subsequent British naval forces including HMS Superieure, Circe, and Wolverine, Palinure engaged in combat, sustaining casualties but managing to retreat when British reinforcements arrived. On 3 October 1808, Palinure captured the British 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop Carnation, an event marked by the crew’s morale decline following the loss of her captain and heavy casualties. However, Palinure’s fortunes changed when she was captured herself; on 31 October 1808, off Diamond Rock near Fort de France, she was engaged and forced to strike her colors after a short battle with the British frigate Circe. At the time, Palinure was under the command of M. Fourniers and had a crew of 79 men, suffering seven killed and eight wounded. Subsequently, she was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Snap in November 1808, under Commander James Pattison Stewart. As HMS Snap, she participated in the British campaign in the West Indies, including the capture of Martinique in 1809 and the seizure of Dutch-held Sint Maarten in 1810. Her service in these campaigns earned her crew the Naval General Service Medal with clasps "Martinique" and "Guadaloupe." The vessel’s active career concluded when she arrived at Portsmouth in January 1811 and was broken up at Sheerness in June of that year.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.