The French aviso Alecton, launched 1861. | |
History | |
---|---|
France | |
Name | Alecton |
Laid down | 1859 |
Launched | 1861 |
Fate | Decommissioned 10 August 1883 and scrapped in 1884 at Lorient |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Alecton class |
Displacement | 570 tonnes |
Length | 50.9 m |
Beam | 12.1 m |
Draught | 2.7 m |
Propulsion | 120 hp steam engine and sails on two masts |
Complement | 66 |
Armament | two light cannon |
The French corvette Alecton was a ship in the French Navy in the 19th century. She is most famous for having been one of the first surface vessels recorded to have encountered a giant squid (Architeuthis). Until this time, giant squid were viewed as mythical creatures.
The Alecton, named after Alecto, one of the three Furies, was a paddle wheeler ( aviso à roues de deuxième classe, type Étoile modifié) laid down in 1859 at the La Seyne shipyard of the Société des Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranée and launched in 1861. [3] [4] She had a length of 50.9 metres and a beam of 12.1 metres. Alecton was powered by both a 120 hp steam engine and sails on two masts, had a crew of sixty-six and an armament of two light cannons. Her displacement was 570 tonnes. Alecton was first stationed at French Guiana and from 1868 onwards at Guadeloupe. She was decommissioned on 10 August 1883 and scrapped in 1884 at Lorient. [4] [3]
Frédéric Bouyer who served as captain on the Alecton wrote a travelogue, which first appeared as an article in Le Tour du Monde in 1866, [1] later published as a book, La Guyane française: notes et souvenirs d'un voyage exécuté en 1862-1863 (1867). [5]
These carried illustrations done by artists based on sketches made by officers on the Alecton [6] and Bouyer himself. [7] The illustration of the ship was by Édouard Riou, based on the sketch by E. Rodolphe, the ship-of-the-line ensign (enseigne de vaisseau) [lower-alpha 1] aboard Alecton. [1] [9]
The encounter with the gigantic squid occurred in 1861 when the boat was under his command. [10]
On November 30, or November 17, [4] 1861 the French corvette Alecton was on its way to Cayenne, navigating near Tenerife, the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands. As the ship neared the island the lookout on duty yelled to the crew below: “a large body, partly submerged, on the surface”. [15] The captain, Frédéric Bouyer, himself would later describe the monster as a "gigantic squid" (French : encornet gigantesque ). [16]
The captain had heard reports of giant squid but the scientific community disputed their existence. Mutilated, decomposed pieces of giant squid had surfaced, most notably off Zealand, Denmark in 1847, and another at The Skaw in 1854. Yet no one had ever captured or even seen a live specimen. [15] Resolved to capture the monster, the captain ordered the ship to fire muskets, launch harpoons, and try to ensnare the squid with a noose. [17]
The bullets seemed to do little damage to the squid's rubbery body, [19] estimated at up to 18 feet (5.5 m) in length from "head to tail" (excluding the length of arms). [20] [21] [4] Finally they managed to lasso a rope around its body. However, the weight was so great that when they tried to haul it aboard, the squid's body was torn and only the tip of the tail remained aboard, which weighed 14 kg according to the captain. [22] [18]
The fragmentary sample was definitely sent to a museum for study, but whether it still remained preserved could not be established by scholars by the following year, in 1862. [23]
The Alecton encounter of 1861 was the inspiration for the giant squids attacking the submarine in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas , a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne, published in 1870. [24] [25] Verne ascribed vicious behavior to the giant squid to paint it as a monster of legend, and the physical descriptions did not square with the living creature. [25]
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is a science fiction adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne. It is often considered a classic within both its genres and world literature. The novel was originally serialised from March 1869 to June 1870 in Pierre-Jules Hetzel's French fortnightly periodical, the Magasin d'éducation et de récréation. A deluxe octavo edition, published by Hetzel in November 1871, included 111 illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou.
Erckmann-Chatrian was the name used by French authors Émile Erckmann (1822–1899) and Alexandre Chatrian (1826–1890), nearly all of whose works were jointly written.
François-Auguste Biard, born François Thérèse Biard was a French painter, known for his adventurous travels and the works depicting his experiences.
Louis Figuier was a French scientist and writer. He was the nephew of Pierre-Oscar Figuier and became Professor of chemistry at L'Ecole de pharmacie of Montpellier. Louis Figuier was married to French writer Louise Juliette Bouscaren.
Louis Marie Adolphe Olivier Édouard Joubin was a professor at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris. He published works on nemerteans, chaetognatha, cephalopods, and other molluscs.
Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger was a French figurative painter and academic artist and teacher known for his Classical and Orientalist subjects.
The French military mission of 1867 to 1868 was one of the first foreign military training missions to Japan, and the first sent by France. It was formed by emperor Napoléon III following a request from the Tokugawa shogunate through its emissary to Europe, Shibata Takenaka, with the goal of modernizing the Japanese military.
Édouard Riou was a French illustrator who illustrated six novels by Jules Verne, as well as several other well-known works.
The kraken is a legendary sea monster of enormous size, per its etymology something akin to a cephalopod, said to appear in the sea between Norway and Iceland. It is believed that the legend of the Kraken may have originated from sightings of giant squid, which may grow to 12–15 m in length.
The Fould family is a family of French Jewish descent known for success in banking. It was founded by Beer Léon Fould, a wine-dealer's son from Lorraine, who moved to Paris in 1784 to establish a banking business. The name comes from the Hessian city of Fulda.
Édouard Martin, full name Édouard Joseph Martin, was a 19th-century French playwright.
Henri Xavier François Pierre Crisafulli was a 19th-century French playwright and novelist.
Édouard Sommer was a French philologist, novelist, translator, grammarian and lexicographer.
Stéphen François Emile Liégeard was a French lawyer, administrator, deputy, writer and poet. He gave the name "Côte d'Azur" to the French Riviera.
Édouard Pottier was a French admiral. During his career, he served in various regions of the world and took part in the operations leading to the occupation of Veracruz in 1861 during the Second French intervention in Mexico and the conquest of Vĩnh Long Province in 1867, which added that territory to French Cochinchina. Promoted to captain in 1886, he served in the Mediterranean and the Levant. Promoted to rear admiral in 1893 and vice admiral in 1898, he served as commander of the International Squadron, a multinational squadron which intervened in the Cretan Revolt of 1897–1898 against the Ottoman Empire. In 1900 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the French Far East Squadron.
Édouard Louis Julien-Laferrière was a French lawyer and authority in administrative law who held various senior administrative positions during the French Third Republic. He wrote a treatise on administrative law that defined the basis for modern French administrative law. He was appointed Governor-General of Algeria during a crisis in 1898, and established an elected advisory assembly with little real power. He encouraged southward expansion into the Sahara.
The Prix Lambert was an award given out jointly in France by the Académie française and the Académie des Beaux-Arts. It was created in 1853 and awarded to "men of letters" who had served the public interest.
Frédéric-Édouard Plessis was a French poet, novelist, journalist and classical philologist.
Théophile Sébastien Lavallée was a French historian and geographer.
Les fragments de ce Céphalopode existent ou existaient au muséum; "Quelques-uns des viscères du nôtre sont déposés la galerie d'anatomie coparée du museum." (Quoy et Gaimard, l. c.) [Zool. de l'Uranie, t. I, 2e partie, p. 411]alt copy via Gallica