French frigate Hortense (1803)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Flore.

Model of Hortense, on display at Toulon naval museum
History
France
Name	Hortense
Launched	30 July 1803
Fate	Condemned 25 November 1840
General characteristics
Class & type	Hortense-class frigate
Displacement	1350 (French tons)
Length	48.75 m (159.9 ft)
Beam	12.2 m (40 ft)
Draught	5.9 m (19 ft)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Ship
Armament	28 × 18-pounder long guns 12 × 8-pounder long guns

Hortense was a 40-gun Hortense-class frigate and lead vessel of her class of the French Navy.

The Acheron leads the Hortense away (far left) at Cape Palos, 4 February 1805

In January 1805, under the command of Captain Delamarre de Lamellerie, she and Incorruptible were sent to observe British movements off Toulon. On 4 February they attacked a convoy, destroying seven ships. Three days later, they encountered another convoy escorted by the 20-gun sloop HMS Arrow and the 8-gun bomb vessel HMS Acheron; the French frigates destroyed the two Royal Navy vessels and captured and burnt Duchess of Rutland and two other merchant vessels of the convoy.

Then on 12 May 1805, Hortense and Hermione captured the 18-gun ship-sloop HMS Cyane. Cyane was cruising between Barbados and Martinique when she encountered a French fleet under Admiral Villeneuve. Hortense and Hermione so out-gunned Cyane that her captain, Commander George Cadogan, had no choice but to strike his colours. ^[1]

Hortense took part in the Battle of Cape Finisterre, in the Battle of Trafalgar and in Lamellerie's expedition.

In 1814, she was renamed to Flore.

Citations

1. Hepper (1994), p. 111.

References

• Adkin, Mark (2005). The Trafalgar Companion: A Guide to History's Most Famous Sea Battle and the Life of Admiral Lord Nelson. Aurum. ISBN   1-84513-018-9.
• Adkins, Roy (2004). Trafalgar: The Biography of a Battle. Little, Brown. ISBN   0-316-72511-0.
• Clayton, Tim & Craig, Phil (2004). Trafalgar: The Men, the Battle, the Storm. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN   0-340-83026-3.
• Fremont-Barnes, Gregory (2005). Trafalgar 1805: Nelson's Crowning Victory. Campaign. Vol. 157. Osprey Publishing. ISBN   1-84176-892-8.
• Goodwin, Peter (2005). The Ships of Trafalgar: The British, French and Spanish Fleets October 1805. Naval Institute Press. ISBN   1-59114-824-3.
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN   0-948864-30-3.
• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours[Dictionary of French Warships from Colbert to Today]. Vol. 1: 1671-1870. Roche. ISBN   978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC   165892922.
• Winfield, Rif & Roberts, Stephen S. (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786-1861: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN   978-1-84832-204-2

External links

• Media related to Hortense (ship, 1803) at Wikimedia Commons