''Amphitrite'' was a 44-gun 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 ...

that saw service during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. Ordered on 6 January 1806, ''Amphitrite'' was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

at Cherbourg-en-Cotentin,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, in August 1806. She was launched on 11 April 1808 and completed later that year. Under the

command Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on Apple Macintosh computer keyboards * ...

Frigate captain Frigate captain is a naval rank in the naval forces of several countries. Corvette captain lies one level below frigate captain. It is usually equivalent to the Commonwealth/US Navy rank of commander. Countries using this rank include Argentin ...

Jean François Denis de Keredern de Trobriand, ''Amphitrite'' departed Cherbourg bound for

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in ...

on 10 November 1808 as part of a

squadron Squadron may refer to: * Squadron (army), a military unit of cavalry, tanks, or equivalent subdivided into troops or tank companies * Squadron (aviation), a military unit that consists of three or four flights with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft, ...

under the overall command of Contre-Amiral

Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin Baron Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin (13 October 1768 – 23 April 1839) was a rear admiral of the French navy and later a Baron. He commanded numerous naval expeditions and battles with the Royal Navy as well as exploratory voyages in the In ...

that also included the frigates and , the brig , and the vessel ''Papillon''François Marie 2ème Denis de Keredern de Trobriand
/ref> The next day, the squadron broke up. ''Amphitrite'' arrived at Fort-de-France, Martinique, only to find it

blockade A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force. A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are leg ...

d by the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

. She managed to slip through and reach the harbour. On 3 February 1809, as the British attacked Martinique, the French

scuttled Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...

''Amphitrite'' to prevent her capture. In 1960, construction work on a modern commercial harbour in Fort de France uncovered the bottom of the hull of ''Amphitrite''.

Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

sheets of the hull and other fragments were recovered and are now on display at the '' Service Régional de l'Archéologie''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amphitrite Age of Sail frigates of France Shipwrecks in the Caribbean Sea 1808 ships Armide-class frigates Maritime incidents in 1809 Ships built in France Scuttled vessels