FRENCH NAVAL INNOVATIONS, YEARS AHEAD OF THEIR TIME.

We all heard of the once mighty British navy “ships, more ships, still more ships” as exclaimed King Henri VIII who understood that the navy is what will guard the island nation & prevent any potential foreign invaders. (Incidentally, it was the British navy & the use of artillery which allowed the frigging British to steal many Spanish colonies and invade so many foreign countries which became part of the British Colonial Empire).

However what is lesser known is that French naval design & engineering was second to none during the Age of Sail, from the middle of the 17th century (when the type emerged) until the close of the sailing era in the middle of the 19th century. I propose to introduce the reader to 2 French naval innovations:

1. THE SAILING FREGATE (FRIGATE IN ENGLISH)

La boudeuse -26 guns fregate of Louis Antoine de Bougainville 

2. THE FIRST TRUE STEAM BATTLESHIP, AND THE FIRST SCREW BATTLESHIP EVER
   

   

Later on I shall mention a more modern French naval innovation.

1. THE FREGATE

Early French naval frigates, until the 1740s, comprises two distinct groups. The larger types were the frégates-vaisseau, with batteries of guns spread over two decks; these were subdivided into frégates du premier ordre or vaisseau du quatrième rang (French Fourth Rates) usually with a lower deck battery of 12-pounder guns, and an upper deck battery of either 8-pounder or 6-pounder guns; and frégates du deuxième ordre or vaisseau du cinquième rang (French Fifth Rates) with a lower deck batter of 8-pounder guns, and an upper deck battery of either 6-pounder or 4-pounder guns. The smaller types were the frégates légères, with a single battery of (usually) 6-pounder or 4-pounder guns, plus a few small guns on its superstructure or gaillards. The 'modern' sail frigate, with its main battery on the upper deck, and no ports along the lower deck, emerged at the start of the 1740s.

Photographs

The Marquis de Lafayette sailed across the Atlantic to America aboard the original Hermione in 1780 and joined the American rebels in their struggle for independence from Great Britain.

Replica (showing the modern French flag) of the Fregate HERMIONE when the Marquis de Lafayette sailed to America to help Washington beat the English

France's Royal flag of the Bourbon at the time of the Marquis de Lafayette

Marquis de Lafayette at the battle of Yorktown









Battle between the French warship Droits de l'Homme and the British frigates Amazon and Indefatigable, 13 & 14 January 1797. (Indefatigable on the left, Droits de l'Homme at the centre, Amazon on the right.)

Design and construction
In general, French frigates were more lightly built than their British equivalents. French designs were often highly prized by the Royal Navy, which copied the designs of a number of the French frigates that they captured, and built a quantity of vessels to the same designs.

Frigates of the 1st Order (or 4th Rank Vessels)

These were two-decked ships - 74 cannons - usually carrying 12-pounder guns in their lower deck battery, and generally an upper deck battery of 6-pounders (although there were exceptions to these calibres). They were classed as fourth rank vessels (vaisseaux du quatrième rang). While not rated as ships of the line, inevitably several of these frigates not infrequently found themselves taking a place in the line of battle, although their main function was for cruising and for trade protection/attack.

Light Frigates (Frégates légères)

These were single-decked unranked ships (i.e. classified as below the cinqième rang), carrying a battery of 6-pounder or 8-pounder guns on their sole gundeck. An estimated 162 of these were placed in service between 1661 and 1715,

By Ambroise-Louis Garneray - Relation complète du naufrage de la frégate La Méduse faisant partie de l'expédition du Sénégal en 1816, by A. Correard, H. Savigny, D'Anglas de Praviel and Paul C.L. Alexandre Rand des Adrets (dit Sander Rang). Reprint 1968 by Jean de Bonnot éditeur., Public Domain,

single deck fregate

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19331029

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2. THE FIRST STEAM BATTLESHIP IN THE WORLD

The Napoléon was a 90-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, and the first purpose-built steam battleship in the world.[1] She is also considered the first true steam battleship, and the first screw battleship ever.[2]

Launched in 1850, she was the lead ship of a class of 9 battleships, all built over a period of 10 years. This class of ship was designed by the famous naval designer Henri Dupuy de Lôme. She was originally to be named Prince de Joinville, in honour of François d'Orléans, Prince of Joinville, but was renamed 24 Février during the French Second Republic to celebrate the abdication of Louis Philippe I, and later to Napoléon in May 1850, a few days after her launch. The Prince of Joinville mentioned the incident in his Vieux Souvenirs

THE NAPOLEON French 90-gun ship of the line off Toulon in 1852. She was the first ever steam battleship and mounted 90 guns. Taken out of service in 1876.

"Dupuy de Lôme conceived and carried out the bolder scheme of designing a full-powered screw liner, and in 1847 Le Napoléon was ordered. Her success made the steam reconstruction of the fleets of the world a necessity. She was launched in 1850, tried in 1852, and attained a speed of nearly 14 knots (26 km/h). During the Crimean War her performances attracted great attention, and the type she represented was largely increased in numbers. She was about 240 ft (73 m). in length, 55 ft (17 m). in breadth, and of 5,000 tons displacement, with two gun decks. In her design boldness and prudence were well combined. The good qualities of the sailing line-of-battle ships which had been secured by the genius of Sané and his colleagues were maintained; while the new conditions involved in the introduction of steam power and large coal supply were thoroughly fulfilled

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Stanislas Charles Henri Dupuy de Lôme (15 October 1816 – 1 February 1885) was a French naval architect. He was the son of a naval officer and was born in Ploemeur near Lorient, Brittany, in western France. He was educated at the École Polytechnique and ENSTA. He was particularly active during the 1840–1870 period. After finishing his professional education, he went to England about 1842, and made a thorough study of iron shipbuilding and steam navigation. He wrote a report, subsequently published under the title of Mémoire sur la construction des bâtiments en Fer in 1844.

PARENTHESIS ABOUT ARISTOCRACY.
Aristocrats bear titles ( baron, viscount, marquess, etc), but their surnames are an indication of noble birth. In France & Belgium, it is the “de” (in small letters followed by a space) + surname; the “de' is called “la particule” e.g. de Lasalle (explorer), de Champlain (explorer), de Richelieu (statesman), de Cadillac (explorer & founder of city of DETROIT, de Montesquieu (social philosopher), de Montcalm (military), de Lafayette, de Rochambeau (US independence), de Robespierre (revolutionary), de Talleyrand (Napoleon's foreign minister) de Cambronne (general of Napoleon's Imperial Guards) and thousands over the past centuries and of course the greatest Frenchman of all time Charles de Gaulle. In Germany “la particule” is the “von” (in small letters) e.g. von Bismarck, von Leeb, von Manstein, von Braun, von Zeppelin, von Hindenburg, Doris von Kappelhoff (US actrice Doris Day's birth name), von Richtoffen (the Red Baron - WWI ace flyer - his Albatroos triplane was painted RED and he was a German Baron) and thousand others. In fact, though it maybe a politically brutal statement, but the history of every European nation is first & foremost the history of its nobility WHY? Because they own the lands, great wealth, were cultured, educated and held all important positions. This business of democracy and the rise of the middle-class to Government/business executive positions is barely 100 years old. It started after the Great War (1914-1918).
END OF PARENTHESIS. 
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3. ANOTHER FRENCH NAVAL INNOVATION

The largest submarine ever built in WW II (notice the plane on the deck)

Surcouf was a French cruiser submarine ordered to be built in December 1927, launched on 18 October 1929, and commissioned in May 1934. Surcouf – named after the French privateer Robert Surcouf – was the largest submarine ever built until surpassed by the first Japanese I-400-class submarine in 1943. Her short wartime career was marked with controversy and conspiracy theories. She was classified as an "undersea cruiser" by sources of her time. Its displacement was 3200tons i.e. 5 times bigger than conventional submarines in existence whose displacement was around 600 tonnes. The SURCOUF required a crew of 110–130 men, which represented three crews of more conventional submarines.

Surcouf had plenty of innovations: It was designed as an "underwater cruiser", intended to seek and engage in surface combat. For reconnaissance, she carried a Besson MB.411 observation floatplane in a hangar built abaft of the conning tower; for combat, she was armed with six 550 mm (22 in) and four 400 mm (16 in) torpedo tubes and twin 203 mm (8 in) guns in a pressure-tight turret forward of the conning tower. The guns were fed from a magazine holding 60 rounds and controlled by a director with a 5 m (16 ft) rangefinder, mounted high enough to view a 11 km (5.9 nmi; 6.8 mi) horizon, and able to fire within three minutes after surfacing. Using her periscopes to direct the fire of her main guns, Surcouf could increase this range to 16 km (8.6 nmi; 9.9 mi); originally an elevating platform was supposed to lift lookouts 15 m (49 ft) high, but this design was abandoned quickly due to the effect of roll.[3] In theory, the Besson observation plane could be used to direct fire out to the guns' 24 mi (21 nmi; 39 km) maximum range. Anti-aircraft cannon and machine guns were mounted on the top of the hangar.

Surcouf also carried a 4.5 m (14 ft 9 in) motorboat, and contained a cargo compartment with fittings to restrain 40 prisoners. The submarine's fuel tanks were very large; enough fuel for a 10,000 nmi (19,000 km; 12,000 mi) range and supplies for 90-day patrols could be carried.

	Cruiser submarine
Displacement:	3,250 long tons (3,300 t) (surfaced) 4,304 long tons (4,373 t) (submerged) 2,880 long tons (2,930 t) (dead)

submarine was that it required a crew of 110–130 men, which represented three crews of more conventional submarines

Fate

Surcouf may have been sunk on 18 February 1942 about 80 mi (70 nmi; 130 km) north of Cristóbal, Colón, while en route for Tahiti via the Panama Canal. The American freighter Thompson Lykes, steaming alone from Guantanamo Bay on what was a very dark night, reported hitting and running down a partially submerged object which scraped along her side and keel. Her lookouts heard people in the water but the freighter carried on its course without stopping, as they thought that they had struck a German U-boat, though cries for help were heard in English. A signal was sent to Panama describing the incident.[8][9] The loss of Surcouf was announced by the Free French Headquarters in London on 18 April 1942.[10]
Inquiries into the incident were haphazard and late, while a later French inquiry supported the idea that the sinking had been due to "friendly fire"; this conclusion was supported by Rear Admiral Auphan in his book The French Navy in World War II[11] in which he states: "for reasons which appear to have been primarily political, she was rammed at night in the Caribbean by an American freighter." Charles de Gaulle stated in his memoirs[12] that Surcouf "had sunk with all hands".
As no one has officially dived or verified the wreck of Surcouf, its location is unknown. If one assumes the Thompson Lykes incident was indeed the event of Surcouf's sinking, then the wreck would lie 3,000 m (9,800 ft) deep at 10°40′N 79°32′WCoordinates: 10°40′N 79°32′W.[2]
There is a memorial to Surcouf in Cherbourg harbor.

Theories on the loss of Surcouf

As there is no conclusive confirmation that Thompson Lykes collided with Surcouf, and her wreck has yet to be discovered, there are alternative stories of her fate.
Disregarding the predictable story about her being swallowed by the Bermuda Triangle, one of the most popular is that she was caught in Long Island Sound refuelling a German U-boat, and both submarines were sunk, either by the American submarines USS Mackerel and Marlin,[13] or a United States Coast Guard blimp.
In response to the above theory, Captain Julius Grigore, Jr., USNR (Retired) has offered a one million dollar prize to anyone who can prove that Surcouf engaged in activities which were detrimental to the Allied cause. The prize has yet to be claimed.

James Rusbridger examined some of the theories in his book Who Sank Surcouf?, finding them all easily dismissed except one: the records of the 6th Heavy Bomber Group operating out of Panama show them sinking a large submarine the morning of 19 February. Since no German submarine was lost in the area on that date, it could have been Surcouf. He suggested that the collision had damaged Surcouf's radio and the stricken boat limped towards Panama hoping for the best



official photo of the cruiser submarine
SURCOUF