The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).
HMS Indefatigable was one of the Ardent-class 64-gun third-rate ships-of-the-line designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1761 for the Royal Navy. She was built as a ship-of-the-line, but most of her active service took place after her conversion to a 44-gun razee frigate. She had a long career under several distinguished commanders, serving throughout the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She took some 27 prizes, alone or in company, and the Admiralty authorised the issue of four clasps to the Naval General Service Medal in 1847 to any surviving members of her crews from the respective actions. She was broken up in 1816.
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower is a 1950 Horatio Hornblower novel written by C. S. Forester. Although it may be considered as the first episode in the Hornblower saga, it was written as a prequel; the first Hornblower novel, The Happy Return, was published in 1937.
The Even Chance is the first of eight Hornblower television adaptations relating the exploits of Horatio Hornblower, the protagonist in a series of novels and short stories by C.S. Forester. The Even Chance is the name given to the film in the United Kingdom, while in the United States it is known by the alternative title The Duel.
Redoutable was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She took part in the battles of the French Revolutionary Wars in the Brest squadron, served in the Caribbean in 1803, and duelled with HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar, killing Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson during the action. She sank in the storm that followed the battle.
HMS Sirius was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Between 1797 and 1805, the Sirius was engaged in maintaining the blockade of Napoleonic Europe. She was lost in 1810 when her crew scuttled her after she grounded during the Battle of Grand Port.
Mont Blanc was a Téméraire class 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the French Navy. In the course of her career, she was renamed no less than four times, reflecting the tides of politics with the French Revolution.
Indomptable ("Indomitable") was a Tonnant-class 80-gun ship of the line in the French Navy, laid down in 1788 and in active service from 1791. Engaged against the Royal Navy after 1794, she was damaged in the Battle of Trafalgar and wrecked near the Spanish city of Cadiz on 25/26 October 1805.
Vice-Admiral Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume was a French Navy officer and nobleman. He started his career at sea on East Indiamen, before serving during the American Revolutionary War under Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing and Pierre André de Suffren. During the French Revolutionary Wars, he was promoted to command the 74-gun Trente-et-un Mai, taking part in the Glorious First of June and the Croisière du Grand Hiver.
Étoile ("Star") was a fluyt of the French Navy. She was originally a merchantman named Placelière and was purchased by the Navy while still on the stocks. She was renamed Étoile in April 1763 and re-classed as a corvette. She is famous for being one of Louis Antoine de Bougainville's ships in his circumnavigation between 1766 and 1769, along with Boudeuse.
The Croisière du Grand Hiver was a French attempt to organise a winter naval campaign in the wake of the Glorious First of June.
Surveillante was an Iphigénie-class 32-gun frigate of the French Navy. She took part in the Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War, where she became famous for her battle with HMS Quebec; in 1783, she brought the news that the war was over to America. She later took part in the French Revolutionary Wars, and was eventually scuttled during the Expédition d'Irlande after sustaining severe damage in a storm. The wreck was found in 1979 and is now a memorial.
Sémillante was a 32-gun frigate of the French Navy and the lead ship of her class. She was involved in a number of multi-vessel actions against the Royal Navy, particularly in the Indian Ocean. She captured a number of East Indiamen before she became so damaged that the French disarmed her and turned her into a merchant vessel. The British captured her and broke her up in 1809.
Coquille was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class, and launched in 1794. The Royal Navy captured her in October 1798 and took her into service as HMS Coquille, but an accidental fire destroyed her in December 1798.
The action of 13 January 1797 was a minor naval battle fought between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the action the frigates outmanoeuvred the much larger French vessel and drove it onto shore in heavy seas, resulting in the deaths of between 400 and 1,000 of the 1,300 persons aboard. One of the British frigates was also lost in the engagement with six sailors drowned after running onto a sandbank while failing to escape a lee shore.
Pierre-François-Henri-Étienne Bouvet de Maisonneuve was a French Navy officer and privateer.
Bayonnaise was a 24-gun corvette of the French Navy, launched in 1793. She became famous for her capture of HMS Ambuscade on 14 December 1798. Her crew destroyed Bayonnaise in November 1803 to prevent her capture.
HMS Atalante was a 16-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French Atalante, captured in 1797. She served with the British during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was wrecked in 1807.
HMS Barbuda was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1780 after having briefly served as an American privateer. Barbuda was one of the two sloops that captured Demerara and Essequibo in 1781, but the French Navy captured her there in 1782 and took her into service as Barboude. The French Navy sold her to private owners in 1786, and she served briefly as a privateer in early 1793 before the French Navy purchased her again and named her Légère. She served them until mid-1796 when the Royal Navy captured her and took her into service as HMS Legere. She was wrecked off the coast of Colombia, without loss of life, in February 1801.
Rainbow in the rigging
Figurehead
Stern
New stern after name change
Hammocks rigged below
Étoile du Roy at Brest, 2012
Étoile du Roy at Concarneau, 2014
Grand Turk, moored in Ostend, Belgium.
United Kingdom
France
