HMS Implacable (1805)
 
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| Ship data | ||
| Owner: | French Navy , Royal Navy | |
| Surname: | Duguay-Trouin, Implacable | |
| Launching ( ship christening ): | 1800 | |
| Builder: | Rochefort (France) | |
| Crew: | 670 officers and men | |
| Fate: | 1800–1805 as Duguay-Trouin French. Navy captured in battle at Cape Ortegal on November 3, 1805, removed from active service in 1855, sunk in the English Channel in 1949 | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Type: | Battery ship (timber construction, two-decker ) | |
| Length over all: | 181 '6 " | |
| Main battery deck length: | 148 ' | |
| Width: | 48 '11 " | |
| Drive: | sail | |
| Displacement : | 1,896 t | |
| Draft: | 22 'depth | |
| Armor system: | without | |
| Armament | ||
| 12 pounders on the quarterdeck : | 2 | |
| 32 pounder carrons: | 12 | |
| 12-pounder on the bow fort: | 2 | |
| 32 pounder carrons: | 2 | |
| 18 pounder on the upper battery deck: | 30th | |
| 32 pounder on the lower battery deck: | 30th | |
HMS Implacable was an initially French, then British warship of the Téméraire class . It was sunk in the English Channel in spite of his participation in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1949 . This immersion is now perceived as a cultural and historical loss and is used as a warning example.
The ship
The name of the French admiral René Duguay-Trouin was already borne by a ship with 74 cannons built in Brest in 1788. During the evacuation of Toulon in 1793 , this was so badly damaged by fire that it was no longer possible to use it. But the wreck was not cleared until 1807.
In Rochefort, the new Duguay-Trouin was built according to a standard design from 1782 by Jacques-Noël Sané (1740-1831) under the supervision of Chevalier de Borda. Under this plan, all should to 1815 biplane - line vessels will be built to 74 cannons. Since all components were standardized, all French 74 ships of the line of this time can be addressed as sister ships due to the serial production. Although since 1793 in construction, was the hull in 1798 continued to be built, and in 1800 took place the launching .
The coppering of the underwater hull, which was typical for this time, was only given to the ship after its return from the Caribbean.
history
Duguay-Trouin
With the Peace of Amiens the blockade of the French ports was lifted and a squadron with the Duguay-Trouin sailed with landing troops to Haiti . The island was to be recaptured after a revolt by slaves against the empire. Since diseases decimated the crews of the ships and the great successes failed to materialize, the ship was ordered back to Europe. On the return journey, she and the accompanying frigate Guerriere (40 cannons) had multiple armed contacts with British units. Both can find shelter in the port of La Coruna . The ship stayed there until Pierre de Villeneuve's fleet arrived in 1805.
With the arrival of the fleet from the West Indies, the nine Spanish and five French liner ships in Ferrol and La Coruna were integrated into the fleet and left the port on August 13 for Cádiz . As part of the advance guard of the Franco-Spanish fleet, it escaped capture by the British fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar . But together with three other ships of the line they could only evade this conquest until November 4th. In the battle near Cape Ortegal, the Duguay-Trouin had to remove the flag.
HMS Implacable
Repaired and renamed HMS Implacable , she was one of the few conquered ships of the line that actually did a longer active service in the Royal Navy . She was assigned to the Baltic Sea Squadron under Admiral Saumarez and remained there until 1810. During this period she was assigned to the allied Swedish deep sea fleet to support and forced on August 26, 1808 after a hard fight, together with the British ship of the line HMS Centaur , that the Russian Vsevolod (74 cannons) struck the flag. After repairs in Plymouth , it was relocated to the Mediterranean and did not return until 1812.
In 1836 she was reactivated and reassigned to the Mediterranean Squadron in Malta . As part of the naval movements there, she takes part in the capture of Acre in 1840 and the blockade of Alexandria. After returning to Devonport , the ship was decommissioned in 1842. In 1855 it was used as a training ship and as such was listed as a 24-gun ship in 1860 (rate). Together with the HMS Trincomalee , both were renamed the training ship Lion in 1871 .
Lion
When the Royal Navy discontinued sailing training in 1902 as a part of training, the Lion was also retired and put up for sale in 1904. Geoffrey Wheatly Cobb (1851-1931) tried to preserve the ship. Despite the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, he could not find enough financial support. In 1912 he only managed to borrow the ship and bring it to Falmouth as a training ship . In the 1920s, the ship had to go into dry dock for extensive repairs . But again there was not enough money for complete maintenance. After Cobbs had financial and health difficulties, the Society for Nautical Research (SNR) took over the leadership of the Implacable Committee . It was not until 1927 that the most necessary work could be completed and the ship moved to Portsmouth . When she arrived in Portsmouth in 1932, she exchanged gun salutes with the HMS Victory . Together with the Trincomalee it was used by the SNR as a “holiday ship” for boys and for the first time also for girls.
When the war broke out in 1939, she was activated as a coal hulk and training ship. At the end of the war, the ship was in extremely poor condition. Although she was released from active service, she remained the property of the Admiralty. For the SNR, however, the Victory, with its significantly better condition, was considered more important. Therefore one could not decide to start initiatives to raise the necessary half a million pounds for maintenance, reconstruction and preparation of the museum ship . Therefore, the Admiralty arranged for the HMS Implacable , ex Duguay-Trouin , to be towed out of the harbor and sunk in the English Channel with explosions in the underwater area on December 2, 1949.
Afterlife
Before the ship was sunk, the Admiralty donated the figurehead and stern decorations to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich . But these were first stored. The capstan is now in the Rochefort Maritime Museum .
With the successful rescue of the Cutty Sark in the 1950s through successful donation campaigns on international terrain, a rethinking of how historical ships should be used in public began. Due to personnel overlaps with the former Implacable Committee , the negative and successful experiences were combined in the World Ship Trust founded in 1979 . This association has given itself a symbol that shows the transom of the Implacable and the motto "Never again".
Remarks
literature
- Johann Gröbner: The French 74-gun ship ACHILLE (1803–05) and its model. In: The logbook. No. 2, 1992, ISSN 0175-7601 , pp. 58-65; No. 4, 1992, pp. 148-160.
- Implacable. A Trafalgar ship remembered. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich 1999, ISBN 0-948065-27-3 .
- David Lyon: The Sailing Navy List. All the Ships of the Royal Navy. Built, purchased and captured, 1688-1860. Conway Maritime Press, London 1993, ISBN 0-85177-617-5 .
Web links
- IMPLACABLE TO THE END - Film about the sinking of the HMS Implacable
- English translation of a report by a French eyewitness of the conquest of the Duguay-Trouin from the National Archive, Kew (UK) (PDF file; 57 kB)
- private homepage with transcribed sources from the 19th century, engl.
- Former, unfinished website about the Duguay-Trouin ( Memento from September 1, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- private homepage about the ship, contemporary events and people, dt.
- commercial homepage with free access to historical photos of the ship, fr.
- World Ship Trust
- Society for Nautical Research
- Site of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, across the Implacable , engl.