''Corse'', initially named ''Napoléon'' before its second commission, was a sail and steam experimental

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

, initially commissioned as a mail steamer. Largely overperforming her specifications and an excellent sailor, she was purchased by the Navy and commissioned to serve as an

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 '' ...

, becoming the first propeller ship in service in 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 ...

. She took part in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

and ferried

Prince Napoléon Italian and Corsican: ''Casa di Buonaparte'', native_name_lang=French, coat of arms=Arms of the French Empire3.svg, caption=Coat of arms assumed by Emperor Napoleon I, image_size=150px, alt=Coat of Arms of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, typ ...

to Iceland in 1856. She was eventually broken up in 1902.

Career

''Napoléon'' was designed as a

mail steamer Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed for domestic mail, passenger, and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers and canals, some of them steam driven. They were used extensively during the 18th and 19th ...

, one of the first in France to use propellers. She was a joint venture by engineer Frédéric Sauvage, one of the inventors of the

screw propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

, and shipbuilder Augustin Normand, who provided the shipbuilding facilities and insisted for a propeller with several blades.''L'histoire de la Marine de 1700 à 1850'' As the Navy was initially uninterested in a steam and sail propeller ship, Normand protested to the Ministry of Finance, who agreed to commission ''Napoléon'' as a mail steamer under the condition that she would reach a speed of 8 knots; during her trials, ''Napoléon'' maintained an average speed or 9.7 knots and reached 12, largely exceeding ministerial specifications. ''Napoléon'' was used as a postal shuttle between Marseille and Ajaccio between 1842 and 1850. In November 1850, she was purchased by the Navy, renamed ''Corse'' on 28 December, and commissioned as an

in Toulon in January 1851, becoming the first screw-propelled unit commissioned in the French Navy.''Netmarine'' She departed Toulon on 30 January 1850 for her new station in Brest, which she reached on 17 February. She served in the Littoral English Channel naval division, towing ''Basilic'' from

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...

on 26 April 1852, and ''Serpent'' two days later. In 1854, ''Corse'' took part in the

as a troopship. Two years later, she ferried

to Iceland. In 1863, ''Corse'' was transferred from the Channel to the Mediterranean and affected to the Training squadron. In 1873 she was transferred to the Bosphorus naval station, and from 1879 was aprt of the Mediterranean squadron. ''Corse'' was struck on 31 December 1890 and used as a coal store hulk, before being broken up in 1902.

Citations

References

*
1842. Le ''Corse'', aviso à hélice (France)
, ''L'histoire de la Marine de 1700 à 1850''

''Netmarine.net'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Corse Naval ships of France Ships built in France 1842 ships Crimean War naval ships of France Victorian-era ships of the line