The ''Minerve'' class was a type of 40-gun
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
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 ...
, carrying
18-pounder long gun
The 18-pounder long gun was an intermediary calibre piece of naval artillery mounted on warships of the Age of Sail. They were used as main guns on the most typical frigates of the early 19th century, on the second deck of third-rate ships of the ...
s as their main armament. Six ships of this type were built at Toulon Dockyard, and launched between 1782 and 1794. The frigates served the French Navy briefly during the
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted French First Republic, France against Ki ...
. The
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 F ...
captured all six between 1793 and 1799 and took them into service, with all but one serving in 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 ...
, and some thereafter.
The first four frigates were built to a design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb. Jacques Brune Sainte Catherine modified Coulomb's design for the fifth, lengthening it to permit the addition of a 14th pair of gunports on the upper deck, although a 14th pair of guns was never carried in this pair of ports. Sainte Catherine further redesigned the class for the sixth, final frigate. The French Navy preferred the designs by Jacques-Noël Sané. However, the more rounded hull form of the ''Minerve''-class vessels' found favour with the Royal Navy, leading it to copy the design.
[Winfield and Roberts (2015), p. 135-6.]
Dimensions
Ships
*
:Ordered: 30 October 1781
:Begun: January 1782
:Launched: 31 July 1782
:Completed: October 1782
:Fate: Captured by the British 18 February 1794, taken into service as HMS ''San Fiorenzo'', broken up 1837
*
:Ordered: 30 October 1781
:Begun: February 1782
:Launched: 31 July 1782
:Completed: October 1782
:Fate: Captured by the British 16 June 1799, taken in as HMS ''Princess Charlotte'', renamed HMS ''Andromache'' January 1812, broken up 1828
*
''Impérieuse''
:Ordered: November 1785
:Begun: February 1786
:Launched: 11 July 1787
:Completed: May 1788
:Fate: Captured by the British 12 October 1793, taken in as HMS ''Captain'', renamed HMS ''Unite'' 3 September 1803, hospital hulk 1836, broken up 1858
*
:Ordered: 1787
:Begun: February 1788
:Launched: 6 August 1789
:Completed: April 1792
:Fate: Captured by the British 10 August 1794, taken in as HMS ''Melpomene'', sold on 14 December 1815
*
:Ordered: 1789
:Begun: June 1789
:Launched: 27 August 1790
:Completed: September 1792
:Fate: Handed over to the British 29 August 1793, taken in as HMS ''Amethyst'', wrecked 27 December 1795
* (ii)
:Ordered:
:Begun: late 1791
:Launched: 4 September 1794
:Completed: October 1794
:Fate: Captured by the British 23 June 1795, taken in as HMS ''Minerve'', recaptured by the French 3 July 1803, renamed ''Canonnière'', sold June 1809 and renamed ''Confiance'', recaptured by the British 3 February 1810 and sold
Citations
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Minerve class frigate
Frigate classes
Ship classes of the French Navy