Les Droits de l'Homme

Posted by F.F. on Monday 17th of April 2023 22:43

The artillery Troude said the French ships of the line of that time bore isn't exactly what they bore.

Examples:

Just before the page you're quoting, he said (Troude, Les Batailles navales de la France, ⅰ, 1867, page 21) that from 1786 only three rates remained in the French navy, which were the 118s [first rate], the 80s [second rate] and the 74s [third rate], whereas in fact the 'ordonnance' of 1786 he quotes (to be read on the website of the French National Library: gallica bnf fr) is refering to 118s and 110s [first rates; five 110s then existed, versus three 118s being built, which were to be launched from 1788 to 1791], 80s [second rates] and 74s [third rates] — and also to frigates of 40 [with 18-pounders and 8-pounders] and of 32 guns [with 12-ponders and 6-pounders]: it's a mistake. Then (page 22, the same one you're refering to) he said that from 1793 the 120s [formerly 118s] bore 120 guns plus four 36-pounder caronades, whereas they had 120 guns and six 36-pounder howitzers: two mistakes in one line. The howitzers, for sure, were often called carronades, because they were expected to cope with British carronades, whereas in lenght and weight their design so much exaggarated the characteristics of the later that they were almost useless (length and weight: British 32-pounder gun and French 36-pounder gun: L/16.7 and L/15.6, weighing as much as from 190 to 200 solid shots; British 32-pounder carronade: L/7, some 60 solid shots; French 36-pounder howitzer: L/4, some 20 solid shots). Two lines below, Troude made another mistake when he wrote (pages 22 to 24) that from 1793 to 1807 the French 74s mounted 24s on their upper deck. During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars (1793-1815), only two French 74s had such guns (the Vétéran and the Cassard, both launched in 1803). In fact Troude in that introduction made many mistakes, most of them not serious ones.

Jean Boudriot's Les Vaisseaux de 74 à 120 canons is the most reliable book on such a subject; what French naval engineers and admirals then wrote is more easy to find on line, being no more under copyright, and British historians also can be refered to for correcting such mistakes, the Royal Navy having taken no more French 74 mounting 24-pounders from 1761 (for no more existed).

Posted by pan on Monday 6th of February 2023 00:33

vaisseau portait
28 canons de 36,
30 — de 24,
16 — de 8
et 14 caronades de 36.
in Batailles navales de la
France. Tome 3