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:
THE SAILING
FREGATE (FRIGATE IN ENGLISH)
La boudeuse -26 guns fregate of Louis Antoine de Bougainville
THE
FIRST TRUE STEAM BATTLESHIP, AND THE FIRST SCREW BATTLESHIP EVER
Later
on I shall mention a more modern French naval innovation.
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
________________________________
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
_____________________________________
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.
_________________________________________
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
