Charmante-class frigate

HMS Unite - Ship plan 1796
Class overview
Name	Charmante
Builders	Brest, Saint-Malo, Nantes
Operators	French Navy   Royal Navy   Spanish Navy
In service	1778 (Charmante) - 1796 (Grâcieuse)
Completed	5 [1]
General characteristics [2]
Type	frigate
Tonnage	540 tonnes
Length	44.2 metres
Beam	11.2 metres
Draught	5.4 metres
Propulsion	Sail
Armament	32 guns: 26 × 12-pounder long guns 6 × 6-pounder long guns Several had 2 or 4 x 36-pounder obusiers added
Armour	Timber

The Charmante class was a group of five 32-gun/12-pounder frigates of the French Navy, built during the late 1770s at Brest (lead ship) Nantes (2 ships) and Saint Malo (2 ships). They were designed by Jean-Denis Chevillard. Of the five ships, two were wrecked, two were captured by the British, and one by the Spanish.

• Charmante ^[2]

Builder: Brest

Ordered:

Laid down: April 1777

Launched: 30 August 1777

Completed: January 1778

Fate: Wrecked on the Chaussée de Sein on 24 March 1780

• Junon ^[3]

Builder: Rochefort

Ordered:

Laid down: September 1777

Launched: March 1778

Completed: May 1778

Fate: Wrecked by the Great Hurricane of 1780 off Saint Vincent on 11 October 1780

• Gracieuse ^[4]

Builder: Rochefort

Ordered:

Laid down: November 1785

Launched: 18 May 1787

Completed: May 1788

Fate: Renamed Unité on 28 September 1793. Captured by the British on 11 April 1796, recommissioned as HMS Unite, sold in 1802

• Inconstante ^[5]

Builder: Rochefort

Ordered:

Laid down: January 1789

Launched: 9 September 1790

Completed: February 1791

Fate: Captured by HMS Penelope and Iphigenia on 25 November 1793 off Saint Domingue and recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Convert

• Hélène ^[6]

Builder: Rochefort

Ordered:

Laid down: 1789

Launched: 18 May 1791

Completed: June 1792

Fate: Captured by the Spanish on 19 February 1793 during the French expedition to Sardinia and recommissioned in the Spanish Navy as Sirena

Citations

1. Roche, p.496
2. Roche, p.111
3. Roche, p.269
4. Roche, p.229-230
5. Roche, p.254
6. Roche, p.239

References

• Cunat, Charles (1852). Histoire du Bailli de Suffren. Rennes: A. Marteville et Lefas. p. 447.
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours, 1671 - 1870. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. pp. 325–6. ISBN   978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC   165892922.
• Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN   978-1844157006.