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Pégase-class Ship Of The Line
The ''Pégase'' class was a class of 74-gun ships of the French Navy, built to a common design by naval constructor Antoine Groignard. It comprised six ships, all ordered during 1781 and all named on 13 July 1781.Winfield & Roberts, ''French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861'', p.86. The name-ship of the class - ''Pégase'' - was captured by the British Navy just two months after her completion; the other five ships were all at Toulon in August 1793 when that port was handed over by French Royalists to the occupying Anglo-Spanish forces, and they were seized by the British Navy. When French Republican forces forced the evacuation of the Allies in December, the ''Puissant'' was sailed to England (and - like the ''Pégase'' - was used as a harbour hulk there until the end of the Napoleonic Wars), and the ''Liberté'' (ex-''Dictateur'') and ''Suffisant'' were destroyed during the evacuation of the port; the remaining pair were recovered by the French Navy - see their respective in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Ship Pégase (1781)
''Pégase'' was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class, launched in 1781. Career ''Pégase'' took part in the Battle of Ushant on 21 April 1782. She was captured by , under Captain John Jervis. Jervis was invested Knight of the Order of the Bath for the capture. ''Pégase'' was bought into the Royal Navy and commissioned as the third rate HMS ''Pegase''. She served as a prison ship A prison ship, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoner of war, prisoners of war or civilian internees. Some prison ships were hulk (ship type), hulked. W ... in Portsmouth from 1799, and was broken up in 1815. See also * List of ships captured in the 18th century Citations References *Lavery, Brian (1983) ''The Ship of the Line - Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850.'' Conway Maritime Press. . *Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen (2015) ''French Wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portsmouth Harbour
Portsmouth Harbour is a / biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Portsmouth and Gosport in Hampshire. It is a Ramsar site and a Special Protection Area. It is a large natural harbour in Hampshire, England. Geographically it is a ria: formerly it was the valley of a stream flowing from Portsdown into the Solent. At its north end is Portchester Castle, of Roman Britain, Roman origin and the first fortress built to protect the harbour. The mouth of the harbour provides access to the Solent. It is best known as the home of the Royal Navy, HMNB Portsmouth. Because of its strategic location on the south coast of England, protected by the natural defence of the Isle of Wight, it has since the Middle Ages been the home to England's (and later United Kingdom, Britain's) navy. The narrow entrance, and the forts surrounding it gave it a considerable advantage of being virtually impregnable to attack from the sea. Before the fortifications were built the French burned ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
36-pounder Long Gun
The 36-pounder long gun was the largest piece of naval artillery in the Age of Sail, artillery mounted on French warships of the Age of Sail. They were also used for Coastal defense and fortification. They largely exceeded the heaviest guns fielded by the Army, which were 24-pounder long guns. The nominal weight of shot was 36 French units of measurement, French ''livres'', . Usage Installed on the lower deck of the larger warships, the 36-pounder long gun was the largest caliber used in the Navy of the Age of the Sail. Attempts to use 48-pounders were made, for instance on French ship Royal Louis (1692), ''Royal Louis'', but these proved impractical to use on ships, partly because their weight allowed for only a few pieces, and because the heavy balls were unwieldy to load by hand. However, some coastal batteries fielded 48-pounders and even 64-pounders. In the Royal Navy, a similar role was fulfilled by 32-pounder long guns. History French warships began to carry 36-pounders ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antoine Groignard
Antoine Groignard (4 February 1727 – 26 July 1799), was a French naval constructor who developed standard designs for French war ships, and built and improved the dry docks at the French naval bases in Toulon and Brest. Family Groignard was son of a master mariner, admiralty pilot, hydrographer and shipowner. In 1767 he married Marie Élisabeth Catherine Boucher de la Boucherie, a daughter of a captain of troops in the service of the French East India Company. The couple had a son and a daughter; the son becoming a frigate captain in the French navy. Career Groignard became a student at the shipbuilding school in Paris (one of the predecessors of today's ENSTA ParisTech). Appointed assistant naval constructor at Brest in 1747 and at Rochefort 1749, he was promoted to naval constructor in 1754. Attached to the French East India Company at Lorient, he designed ships suitable for combat and commerce; among them the ''Duc de Duras'' that later became the famous American frigat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Ship Puissant (1782)
''Puissant'' was built in 1781–1782, to a design by Antoine Groignard as a 74-gun ship of the line. Her captain handed her over to the British at Toulon on 29 August 1793. She arrived at Portsmouth on 3 May 1794. She then remained there as an unarmed receiving ship, sheer hulk, and flagship until her sale in 1816. British career On 28 August 1793, Admiral Lord Hood of the Royal Navy and Admiral Juan de Lángara of the Spanish Navy, committed a force of 13,000 British, Spanish, Neapolitan and Piedmontese troops to the French royalists' cause at Toulon. The next day, the royalists handed over a number of their vessels to the British. ''Puissant'' was under the command of Mon. Ferrand. After her hand-over to British control she spent several weeks laying opposite and firing on a shore battery of 24-pounders at the head of La Seine in Toulon harbor. She then sailed to Portsmouth, arriving there on 3 May 1794. The British government awarded Ferrand a pension of £200 per annum fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Toulon (1793)
The siege of Toulon (29 August – 19 December 1793) was a military engagement that took place during the Federalist revolts and the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. It was undertaken by forces of the French Republic against Royalist rebels supported by Anglo-Spanish forces in the southern French city of Toulon. It was during this siege that young Napoleon Bonaparte first won fame and promotion when his plan, involving the capture of fortifications above the harbour, was credited with forcing the city to capitulate and the Anglo-Spanish fleet to withdraw. The siege marked the first involvement of the British Royal Navy with the French Revolution. Background After the arrest of the Girondist deputies on the 2 June 1793, there followed a series of insurrections within the French cities of Lyon, Avignon, Nîmes, and Marseille known as Federalist revolts. In Toulon, the federalists evicted the local chapter of the Jacobin Club, but were soon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Ship Dictateur (1782)
''Dictateur'' was a 74-gun of the French Navy, launched in 1782. She served during the last months of the American War of Independence, and survived to see action in the French Revolutionary Wars. Construction and early service ''Dictateur'' was laid down at Toulon Dockyard in July 1781 to a design by Antoine Groignard. Launched on 16 February 1782, she had entered service by August of that year. She was renamed ''Liberté'' in September 1792 by the Revolutionary government. Capture The ''Liberté'' was handed over by French Royalists at Toulon to the Anglo-Spanish occupying forces during the occupation of Toulon in August 1793, but was burnt at the subsequent evacuation of that port in December to avoid her being taken back into French service. Notes a. The six ships of the ''Pégase''-class proved unlucky in their encounters with the Royal Navy. ''Pégase'', the nameship of the class, was captured by the British in 1782, less than a year after being launched, and served in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Ship Suffisant (1782)
''Suffisant'' was a 74-gun of the French Navy, launched in 1782. She served during the last months of the American War of Independence, and survived to see action in the French Revolutionary Wars. Construction and early service ''Suffisant'' was laid down at Toulon Dockyard in July 1781 to a design by Antoine Groignard. Launched on 6 March 1782, she had entered service by August of that year. Capture She was handed over by French Royalists at Toulon to the Anglo-Spanish occupying forces during the occupation of Toulon in August 1793, but was burnt at the subsequent evacuation of that port in December to avoid her being taken back into French service. Notes a. The six ships of the ''Pégase''-class proved unlucky in their encounters with the Royal Navy. ''Pégase'', the nameship of the class, was captured by the British in 1782, less than a year after being launched, and served in the Royal Navy until 1815. The other five - ''Liberté'', ''Suffisant'', ''Puissant'', ''Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Ship Alcide (1782)
''Alcide'' was a 74-gun of the French Navy, launched in 1782. In 1782, she took part in the American war of Independence in De Grasse's fleet. She took part in the Battle of Hyères, under captain Le Blond Saint-Hilaire. She was the last ship of the French rear when she was becalmed and had to fight , , and . She managed to damage the rigging of ''Culloden'', but was quickly battered by her overwhelmingly superior opponents. She surrendered to ''Cumberland'' at 2h. The frigates ''Justice'' and ''Alceste'' attempted to take her in tow to safety, but were repelled by gunfire from ''Victory''. Soon thereafter, a fire broke out, reportedly in her tops or by her own heated shot Heated shot or hot shot is round shot that is heated before firing from muzzle-loading cannons, for the purpose of setting fire to enemy warships, buildings, or equipment. The use of heated shot dates back centuries. It was a powerful weapon agai ...s. She exploded 30 minutes afterwards with the loss of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of The Hyères Islands
The Battle of the Hyères Islands was a naval engagement fought between a combined British and Neapolitan fleet and the French Mediterranean Fleet on 13 July 1795 during the French Revolutionary Wars. Since the start of the war in 1793 the French fleet had suffered a series of damaging defeats and was restricted to limited operations off the French Mediterranean Coast in the face of a determined allied blockade. The French fleet, commanded by Pierre Martin, had sought to test the blockade during 1795, and in March had been caught by the British, under William Hotham, in the Gulf of Genoa. At the ensuing Battle of Genoa two French ships were captured before Martin was able to retreat to a safe anchorage. During the spring Martin and Hotham both received reinforcements from their respective Atlantic Fleets, the British admiral sailing off Minorca while Martin was forced to put down a mutiny among his sailors. By June Hotham had returned to the Ligurian Sea, anchored in San ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heated Shot
Heated shot or hot shot is round shot that is heated before firing from muzzle-loading cannons, for the purpose of setting fire to enemy warships, buildings, or equipment. The use of heated shot dates back centuries. It was a powerful weapon against wooden warships, where fire was always a hazard. It was rendered obsolete in the mid-19th century when vessels armored with iron replaced wooden warships in the world's navies. Also at around the same time, the replacement of solid-iron shot with exploding shells gave artillery a far more destructive projectile that could be fired immediately without preparation.Roberts, 1863, pg. 107 The use of heated shot was mainly confined to shore batteries and forts, due to the need for a special furnace to heat the shot, and their use from a ship was in fact against Royal Navy regulations because they were so dangerous, although the American ship USS ''Constitution'' had a shot furnace installed for hot shot to be fired from her carronades. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Ship Censeur (1782)
''Censeur'' was a 74-gun of the French Navy, launched in 1782. She served during the last months of the American War of Independence, and survived to see action in the French Revolutionary Wars. She was briefly captured by the British, but was retaken after a few months and taken back into French service as ''Révolution''. She served until 1799, when she was transferred to the Spanish Navy, but was found to be rotten and was broken up. Construction and early service ''Censeur'' was laid down at Rochefort in August 1781 to a design by Antoine Groignard. Launched on 24 August 1782, she had entered service by October that year. She was one of the ships captured during the occupation of Toulon in 1793, though she was left to fall into Republican hands intact in the withdrawal. Capture On 3 March 1795 ''Censeur'', under her captain Louis-Marie Coudé, formed part of a fleet of 15 ships of the line under the command of Counter-Admiral Pierre Martin, which sailed from Toulon bound ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
