The Serpente class was a class of four 20-gun corvettes for the French Navy, designed by Charles-Henri Tellier as a follow-on to the Etna-class corvettes of the previous year.[2] Four separate commercial shipbuilders were involved in their construction by contract, with three being ordered at Honfleur in 1794 and a fourth at Le Havre across the Seine estuary in 1795. The vessels were flush-decked and designed to carry a battery of twenty 18-pounder guns.[2]
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Serpente |
| Operators | |
| In commission | 1796–1816 |
| Completed | 4 |
| Lost | 1 |
| Retired | 3 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Type | Corvette |
| Displacement | 727 ton (French) |
| Tons burthen | 350 (bm)[Note 1] |
| Length | 40.28 m (132 ft 2 in) (overall) |
| Beam | 9.745 m (31 ft 11.7 in) |
| Draught | 3.84 m (12 ft 7 in) |
| Propulsion | Sail |
| Complement | 188 |
| Armament | 20 × 18-pounder long guns |
| Armour | Timber |
The Royal Navy captured one of the four vessels in the class, and burnt another in action.
Serpente class (4 ships)
edit- Builder: Jean-Louis Pestel, Honfleur
- Begun: October 1794
- Launched: 1 September 1795
- Completed: January 1796
- Fate: Floating battery 1806, hulked 1807. Condemned to be broken up 1815.
- Builder: Louis Deros, later Nicolas Loquet, Honfleur
- Begun: September 1794
- Launched: 8 June 1800
- Completed: September 1800
- Fate: Employed as survey ship for Australian expedition in 1800. Powder hulk 1807, later barracks ship. Deleted 1819.
- Notes: Renamed from Uranie in 1797, then from Galatée in June 1800. Loquet took over her building after Deros's early death, but then refused to launch her until he was paid.
- Builder: Fortier Brothers, Honfleur
- Begun: October 1794
- Launched: 29 December 1795
- Completed: January 1796
- Fate: Broken up in Rochefort August/September 1830
- Notes: Captured on 25 June 1803 off the Azores by HMS Endymion, and became HMS Bacchante, sold 1809.
- Builder: Foouache & Reine, Le Havre
- Begun: September 1795
- Launched: 10 May 1797
- Completed: February 1798
- Fate: Destroyed on 29 May 1798 in the mouth of the Dives (river) by HMS Hydra.
Notes
editCitations
editReferences
edit- Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours, 1671–1870. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1861762467.
- Winfield, Rif & Stephen S Roberts (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786 - 1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. (Seaforth Publishing). ISBN 9781848322042