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
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)
Light Frigates (Frégates légères)
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.
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: |
|
submarine was that it
required a crew of 110–130 men, which represented three crews of
more conventional submarines
Fate
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
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
official photo of the cruiser submarine
SURCOUF
