The ''Romaine'' class was a class of nine
frigates 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 ...
, designed in 1794 by
Pierre-Alexandre Forfait
Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait (21 April 1752, Rouen – 8 November 1807, Rouen) was a French engineer, hydrographer and politician, and Minister of the Navy.
Career
Born to a family of rich merchants, Forfait studied at a Jesuit college in Ro ...
.
They
In Modern English, ''they'' is a third-person pronoun relating to a grammatical subject.
Morphology
In Standard Modern English, ''they'' has five distinct word forms:
* ''they'': the nominative (subjective) form
* ''them'': the accusat ...
were originally designated as "bomb-frigates" (Fr. ''frégate-bombarde'') and were intended to carry a main armament of twenty 24-pounder guns and a 12-inch mortar mounted on a turntable in front of the mizzen mast. Experience quickly led to the mortars being removed (in most vessels they were never fitted), and the 24-pounders were replaced by 18-pounder guns. The ships also featured a
shot furnace, but they proved impractical, dangerous to the ships themselves, and were later discarded.
La frégate de 24.
, Nicolas MIOQUE, ''Trois Ponts'' A further eleven ships ordered to this design in 1794 were not built, or were completed to altered designs.
Two vessels of the class became breakwaters in less than 15 years after their construction. 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 ...
captured three. One was lost at sea. None had long active duty careers. All-in-all, these ships do not appear to have been successful with the initially intended armament, but proved of adequate performance once their heavy mortar was removed and their 24-pounders replaced with 18-pounder long guns.
Vessels in class
* [Roche, p.385]
:Builder: Le Havre
:Begun: March 1794
:Launched: 25 September 1794
:Completed: December 1794
:Fate: Condemned 1804.
* [Roche, p.250]
:Builder: Lorient
:Begun: May 1794
:Launched: 7 January 1795
:Completed: February 1795
:Fate: Captured by the British Navy on 20 October 1798, becoming HMS ''Immortalite''.
* [Roche, p.254]
:Builder: Dieppe
:Begun: March 1794
:Launched: 20 May 1795
:Completed: December 1795
:Fate: Deleted 1815.
* [Roche, p.381]
:Builder: Dieppe
:Begun: March 1794
:Launched: 31 August 1795
:Completed: December 1795
:Fate: Deleted 1818 or 1819.
* [Roche, p.121]
:Builder: Le Havre
:Begun: September 1794
:Launched: 11 March 1796
:Completed: January 1798
:Fate: Converted to a breakwater 1808, taken to pieces 1810.
* [Roche, p.147]
:Builder: Dunkirk
:Begun: February 1794
:Launched: 23 April 1796
:Completed: December 1798
:Fate: Captured by the British Navy on 8 July 1800, becoming HMS ''Desiree''.
* [Roche, p.359]
:Builder: Dunkirk
:Begun: February or April 1794
:Launched: 24 May 1796
:Completed: April 1798
:Fate: Condemned 1805, made a breakwater 1806 or 1807.
Twenty ships of this type were originally included in the shipbuilding programme placed between October 1794 and April 1794, but several appear not to have been begun. Apart from the nine listed above, a tenth vessel, , was begun at Cherbourg in March 1795 to the same design but was completed as a vessel of Forfait's earlier . An eleventh, ''Pallas'' (originally named ''Première'') was begun at Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, on the English Channel coast.
The walled city had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Alli ...
in November 1795 to a much modified design; a twelfth, ''Fatalité'' was also ordered in October 1793 at Saint-Malo, but was cancelled in 1796, as was a further vessel, ''Nouvelle'', ordered in 1794 at Lorient. Another vessel, ''Guerrière'', was begun at Cherbourg in 1796 to this design but was also completed to a modified design.
References
Citations
Sources
*
*Alain Demerliac, ''Nomenclature des navires francais de 1792-1799''.
*Rif Winfield, ''British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817'', Seaforth Publishing, 2007, .
*Rif Winfield and Stephen S. Roberts, ''French Warships in the Age of Sail, 1786-1861'', Seaforth Publishing, 2015, .
{{Romaine class frigate
Romaine