''Bouvet'' was a sail and steam

aviso An ''aviso'' was originally a kind of dispatch boat or "advice boat", carrying orders before the development of effective remote communication. The term, derived from the Portuguese and Spanish word for "advice", "notice" or "warning", an ...

of the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

, lead ship of her class. She is remembered as the opponent of the German gunboat SMS ''Meteor'' during the Battle of Havana in 1870, at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War.

Career

Commissioned on 18 June 1866, ''Bouvet'' served in Mexico, in the Caribbean and off Terre-Neuve. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, she was sent to the Caribbean, where she intervened to rescue the liner SS ''Nouveau Monde''. Under Commander Franquet, she fought against SMS ''Meteor'' during the Battle of Havana, managing to ram her opponent and knocking out two of her masts, but suffering herself a shot in a steam pipe which forced her to return into Cuban waters and avoid capture. ''Bouvet'' was wrecked on 17 September 1871 off

Île-à-Vache Île-à-Vache, (French, also expressed Île-à-Vaches, former Spanish name Isla Vaca; all translate to Cow Island) is a Caribbean island, one of Haiti's satellite islands. It lies in the Baie de Cayes about off the coast of the country's south ...

, when a gust of wind sent her onto a reef. The crew managed to safely abandon ship.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bouvet Ships built in France 1865 ships Shipwrecks in the Caribbean Sea Maritime incidents in September 1871