''Prince Jérôme'' was a late

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactic known as the line of battle, which depended on the two colu ...

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 ...

. Started in 1827 as the ''Hercule''-class ''Hannibal'', she was abandoned for nearly thirty years before being completed under the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Empire, Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the French Second Republic, Second and the French Third Republic ...

as a steam-powered ship of the line, under the name ''Prince Jérôme''. Obsolete at the rise of the

French Third Republic The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 ...

, she was renamed ''Hoche'' and struck shortly after. She was recommissioned in 1872 as a transport under the name ''Loire'', and ended her career in 1885 as a hulk in

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Service history

On 28 July 1856, the British

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

put into

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, Portugal on fire and was beached. The fire was extinguished with assistance from land based

fire engines The Fire Engines were a post-punk band from Edinburgh, Scotland. The Fire Engines were an influence on many bands that followed, including Franz Ferdinand and The Rapture, with Meat Whiplash and The Candyskins both taking their names from Fire ...

and ''Prince Jérôme''.

La Loire (1872)

On 6 June 1872, this ship was struck off the lists of the French fleet for the first time. But his transport career will rebound again since the ''

Bagne of Toulon The Bagne of Toulon was the notorious prison in Toulon, France, made famous as the place of imprisonment of the fictional Jean Valjean, the hero of Victor Hugo's novel ''Les Misérables''. It was opened in 1748 and closed in 1873. Origins: the ...

'' has become congested, and the

French Government The Government of France ( French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who ...

wanted to increase the deportations of convicts and prisoners to overcome the problem of exiguity, which required resorting to means of great exile capacities towards the islands of the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. A project is then submitted for the transformation of the ship for use in sailing transport in order to be able to embark 800 condemned men, 200 free passengers and 400 crew. The project was approved on 27 September 1872 and the transformation work began in October, and the ship was again re-entered on the Fleet's lists as a sailboat. It was then renamed ''La Loire'' from the start of the transformation works, and in November and December a new transformation takes place, with the unloading of the artillery and the machine, the replacement of the old mast by a more rig. light, the installation of the new artillery and its ammunition, the enlargement of the poop. The construction of a teugue is then carried out, which is a low superstructure, then by extension raising at the front of a boat, and this at the front of the boat to accommodate part of the crew. There is also an installation of side cylinders outside the hull, in the high battery, and a setting up of a station at the front for the rest of the crew, with the construction of prisons for around 350 inmates with an infirmary. separating them, and fitting out of the false-deck to accommodate free passengers. Food forecasts have been taken into consideration to meet the needs of the crew and passengers for 10 months, and for 5 months for the convicts. The transformation work ended on 20 February 1873, and the ship was fitted out on 1 March and placed under the orders of Captain Jacques, known as Lapierre. From January to March 1874, the ship was transformed again in order to reduce the capacity for convicts in favor of that of free passengers.

9th convoy of deportees

In April ''La Loire'' was rearmed and placed under the orders of the captain of the vessel '' (1822-1892)'', and on 18 May, he was at the ''port of

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress * Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria * Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France ** Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Br ...

'' where he embarked 280 convicts and 50 Algerian deportees at '' Fort Quélern'' from the

Mokrani Revolt The Mokrani Revolt ( ar, مقاومة الشيخ المقراني, lit=Resistance of Cheikh El-Mokrani; ber, Unfaq urrumi, lit=French insurrection) was the most important local uprising against France in Algeria since the French conquest of Alger ...

, at their head the marabout Cheikh Boumerdassi, then set off. This ship arrived on 7 June at the anchorage of the harbor of

Île-d'Aix Île-d'Aix () is a commune and an island in the Charente-Maritime department, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine (before 2015: Poitou-Charentes), off the west coast of France. It occupies the territory of the small Isle of Aix (''île d'Aix''), in the ...

, where it embarked 700 passengers, including 40 women, and 320 French deportees. On 9 June, it left for

Nouméa Nouméa () is the capital and largest city of the French special collectivity of New Caledonia and is also the largest francophone city in Oceania. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre, a ...

, and it was thus the ''9th convoy of deportees'' that left ''France'' to then stop on 23 June in ''

Santa Cruz de Tenerife Santa Cruz de Tenerife, commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz (), is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and capital of the Canary Islands. Santa Cruz has a population of 206,593 (2013) within its admi ...

'', to arrive in ''Nouméa'' on 16 October 1874. There will be around 5 deaths at sea, and on 10 November of the same year, he left ''Nouméa'' to return to ''France''.

Citations

References

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External links