Enseigne de vaisseau non entretenu (literally: "Ensign without a salary") was a junior naval rank in the French Navy during the Revolutionary Wars.
The duties of an Enseigne de vaisseau non entretenu were the same as those of an enseigne de vaisseau entretenu (Ensign), but on a contractual basis rather than a full commission. An Enseigne de vaisseau non entretenu would wear the uniform and have authority only when on service, and was not paid when off-duty.
There was a fixed number (200) of positions for "entretenus", which required a competitive examination. The number "non entretenus" had no such limit, and one could obtain the status by a simple examination or by captaining a merchantman. [1] [2] This allowed the Navy to augment its ranks at a time of crisis and as the personnel of the Navy was thin and disorganised by emigration and purges.
Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank acquired the name. This rank has generally been replaced in army ranks by second lieutenant. Ensigns were generally the lowest-ranking commissioned officer, except where the rank of subaltern existed. In contrast, the Arab rank of ensign, لواء, liwa', derives from the command of units with an ensign, not the carrier of such a unit's ensign, and is today the equivalent of a major general.
The rank insignia of the French Navy are worn on shoulder straps of shirts and white jackets, and on sleeves for navy jackets and mantels. Until 2005, only commissioned officers had an anchor on their insignia, but enlisted personnel are now receiving them as well. Although the names of the ranks for superior officers contain the word "Capitaine", the appropriate style to address them is "Commandant", "Capitaine" referring to "lieutenant de vaisseau", which is translated as lieutenant. The two highest ranks, Vice-amiral d'escadre and Amiral (Admiral), are functions, rather than ranks. They are assumed by officers ranking Vice-amiral (Vice-Admiral).
Counter-admiral Gabriel Paul Auphan was a French naval officer who became the State Secretary of the Navy of the Vichy government from April to November 1942.
Amiral Édouard Guillaud is a retired French Naval Officer and Admiral. He devoted a significant part of his career to the design of the Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier, and eventually captained carrier de Gaulle. He served as Chief of the general staff headquarters of the Armies CEMA from 25 February 2010 to 2014.
L'Espoir was a French brig-sloop that served for 9½ years in the French Navy before HMS Thalia captured her in September 1797. In her subsequent short career in British service as HMS Espoir she captured three prizes, with the capture in 1798 of the more heavily armed Genoese pirate Liguria earning her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal. Espoir was laid up in 1799 and sold in 1804.
The French brig Albanaise was launched in 1790. In June 1800, the Royal Navy captured her in the Mediterranean and took her into service as HMS Albanaise. In November 1800, her crew mutinied, took command of the vessel, and sailed her to Malaga where they surrendered her to the Spanish. The Spanish later returned her to the French, who did not return her to service.
Marsouin was a gabarre, the name-ship of her three-vessel class, built to a design by Raymond-Antoine Haran, and launched in 1787 or 1788 at Bayonne. She carried troops, supplies, invalids, etc., across the Atlantic to the Caribbean or back until the British captured her in 1795. Though the Royal Navy nominally took her into service, she was never actually commissioned, and she disappeared from the lists in 1799.
Jean-Baptiste-Augustin Rousseau was a French naval officer.
HMS Coureuse was a schooner launched in about 1785 at New York, that the French Navy acquired at Cayenne and armed and commissioned at Lorient in 1794. The British captured her in 1795 and the Royal Navy briefly used her as a dispatch vessel in the Mediterranean. The Admiralty sold her in 1799.
Pandour was a French a 14-gun gun-brig launched in 1780 as a cutter. The Royal Navy captured her in December 1795 and took her into service as Pandora, but she foundered in June 1797.
Louis-Charles-Auguste Delamarre, vicomte de Lamellerie was a French Navy officer and captain.
The French gun-vessel Eclair was one of 20 chasse-marées built in 1785 in southern Brittany for use as service craft in harbour construction at Cherbourg. In 1793 Martin or Jacques Fabien converted ten of them into chaloupes-canonnières (gun-vessels). One of these received the name Eclair. Sir Richard Strachan's squadron captured her in 1795 in Cartaret Bay, and the Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Eclair. She then sailed to the West Indies where she was probably out of service by 1801. In 1802 she was hulked under the name HMS Safety. She then served as a prison ship at Jamaica around 1808 to 1810. She may have been sold at Tortola in 1817/18, but in 1841 or so was brought back into service there as a receiving hulk. She was broken up in 1879.
HMS Vesuve was the French brick-cannonièreVésuve, name vessel of her class of seven bricks-cannonière. She was launched at Saint-Malo in 1793. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1795 and took her into service as HMS Vesuve. The Navy sold her in 1802.
HMS Resolue was the Spanish xebec O Hydra, that the French captured in 1794 and renamed Résolue in 1795. The British captured her in 1795; she was last listed in 1802.
Antoine Marie François Montalan was a French Navy officer active during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic wars.
HMS Trompeuse was a former French 16-gun brig-sloop, launched in July 1793, that HMS Sphinx captured on 12 January 1794 near Cape Clear Island. The British Royal Navy took her into service. As HMS Trompeuse she captured a small privateer and then grounded off Kinsale in 1796.
Vaillante was a brick cannonier (gunbrig) launched in 1793, probably at Saint-Malo. She spent the first year or so her career escorting convoys off the coast of Brittany. In May 1795 she was renamed Violente, but she reverted to the name Vaillante in 1796. The British Royal Navy destroyed her in the Caribbean late in 1796.
Louis-André Senez was an officer of the French Navy during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.
Louis-Marie Le Gouardun was a French Navy officer. Starting his career in the French East India Company, he served under Suffren in the Indian Ocean during the Anglo-French War, and later in important actions of the French Revolutionary Wars. He commanded Dix-Août during her victorious Action of 24 June 1801 against Swiftsure. After serving through the First French Empire, Le Gouardun was forcibly retired at the Bourbon Restoration.
Enseigne de vaisseau Jacoubet (F794) is a D'Estienne d'Orves-class aviso in the French Navy.