All at Sea - The American 36-gun USS Constellation & the French 40-Gun La Virginie, 3-D Prints from Turner Miniatures & Only Games.

Action of the 9th of February 1799, when the USS Constellation, commanded by Captain Thomas Truxtun, captured the French frigate L'Insurgente - Rear Admiral John William Schmidt (Ret.)

It was back in May that I introduced some new 3D printed models from Turner Miniatures to complete my current collection of 1:700 age of sail ships and facilitate some specific small ship actions that I intend to play going forward.

JJ's Wargames - HMS Speedy and El Gamo, 6th May 1801

Those plans had been somewhat forestalled by the lack beforehand of suitable models to better represent, in that particular instance the action fought on the 6th May 1801 between the Spanish xebec frigate El Gamo and diminutive British brig-sloop Speedy, both very particular ships that the Turner prints combined with Warlord masts worked well to represent, see above for the link to that post.

My interpretation of Commodore Thomas Truxtun's 36-gun frigate Constellation using the Turner Miniatures hull and Warlord masts.

These new additional models are being worked on alongside the remaining small ships required to complete my Camperdown project that are also 3D additions and so will showcase them as they are completed.

So the two models to be looked at in this post are a much needed American option for the Quasi War fought between former allies in the American War of Independence, as France sought to impose her will on the new republic with use of her sea power, whilst also engaged in the French Revolutionary War with Great Britain, which would see both the American and French navies introduce very large frigates into the war at sea. 

Which also prompted the inclusion of some specific models of French frigate types that feature throughout the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and the Quasi Wars, starting with the 40-gun La Virginie that was the lead ship in her class of ten built by Jacques-Noël Sané, and to be followed in later posts by other 40-gun types as well as the smaller classes of 32-gun and 36-gun types.

USS Constellation 38-guns - Rear Admiral John W. Schmidt, USN (Ret.)
The Constellation was one of the first of the six large American frigates ordered by Congress in 1794 to be completed, launched on the 7th September 1797 in Baltimore and becoming the first frigate to be commissioned into the new US Navy on the 26th June 1798.

The Quasi-War was an undeclared war fought between 1798 to 1800 by the United States and the French First Republic. It took place at sea, primarily the Caribbean and the East Coast of the United States.

In 1793, Congress unilaterally suspended repayment of French loans from the American Revolutionary War, and in 1794 signed the Jay Treaty with Britain, (or more officially referred to as 'The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America').

Then engaged in the French Revolutionary War, France retaliated by seizing American ships trading with Britain, and after diplomatic negotiations failed to resolve these issues, French privateers began attacking merchant ships in October 1796, in US territorial waters, regardless of nationality.

The dissolution of Federal naval forces following independence left the US unable to mount an effective response and by October 1797, over 316 American ships had been captured. 

Without the facilities to build ships of the line, in 1794 Congress ordered six large frigates, (Chesapeake 38-guns, Constitution 44-guns, President 44-guns, United States 44-guns, Congress and Constellation, both 36-guns) which by 1798, saw three of them nearly complete and on the 16th of July 1798, additional funding was approved for the USS Congress, USS Chesapeake, and USS President, plus the frigates USS General Greene and USS Adams.

There are several interpretations of the look of the USS Constellation but my choice focused on a model by Thomas Todd from 1985, based on a 1797 article from the Baltimore Gazette, describing the ship and the carvings by William Rush, however precise colours are possibly speculative.

In March 1798, Congress reconstituted the United States Navy, and in July authorized the use of force against France, and by 1799, American commercial losses had been significantly reduced through informal cooperation with the Royal Navy, whereby merchant ships from both nations were allowed to join each other's convoys.

The replacement of the French First Republic by the Consulate in November 1799 led to the Convention of 1800, which ended the war.

The Federal Navy

"Preparation for WAR to defend Commerce," Birch's Views of Philadelphia, Published by W. Birch, circa 1799. The man standing in the foreground may be a portrait of Humphreys and the frigate Philadelphia was designed by Josiah Fox, a critic of Humphrey's 'heavy' frigate designs.

Joshua Humphrey's was the man charged with providing the designs for the new frigates that would constitute the spearhead of the new Federal Navy in 1794 which saw him come up with a design for his two 36-gun frigates Constellation and Congress having a gun deck of 163 feet at a time when contemporary British designed 36-gun and 38-gun types were weighing in with gun decks of 137 and 150 feet respectively.

Lines for Joshua Humphrey's 36-gun frigate class, that were used for Constellation and her sister Congress.

These so-called 'medium' frigates were designed to carry 28 x 18-pounder long guns on the gun deck, and eight 9-pdrs on the spar deck, giving them a much greater punch than a standard British 38-gun frigate, however as was the custom in the American navy these ships would be fitted out with more and heavier guns on their spar deck than the original design envisaged.

The intention was clearly to provide the US Navy with frigates to equal or surpass the heaviest enemy frigate of the same rating, be they Barbary pirates, or warships of the French, Spanish or British navies.

Constellation is a powerful unit with her five broadside dice jumping to
seven for her crew quality at short range and a first broadside bonus; and
with 55 hull points, she is built to take a punch as well as deliver one. 

USS Constellation's general characteristics were:

Tons burthen 1220 tons (bm)

Length of gundeck 164 feet 

Beam 41 feet 

Depth of hold 13 feet, 5 inches

Her armament consisted of:

Gundeck: 28 x 24-pounder long guns

Quarterdeck & Forecastle: 6 (QD) & 4 (Fc) x 12-pounders long guns and 8 (QD) & 2 (Fc) 32-pounder carronades.

Constellation v Insurgente, 9^th February 1799, 12.00, 15 miles ENE of Nevis.

In response to French privateering attacks against American vessels, the United States government decided to go on the offensive by sending four naval squadrons to the Caribbean with orders to seize armed French vessels and prevent privateers from attacking American ships. One of the squadrons, under the command of Commodore Thomas Truxtun, consisting of his flagship, the frigate USS Constellation, the 20-gun Baltimore, the brigs Richmond and Norfolk, and the revenue cutter Virginia was dispatched to cruise between Puerto Rico and Saint Kitts.  

Commodore Thomas Truxtun - Bass Otis

Opposing Truxtun were several French vessels based in Guadeloupe, among them a number of privateers as well as two French naval frigates and a smaller, 20-gun corvette. One of the French frigates, L'Insurgente, sortied from Guadeloupe on 8 February, commanded by Michel-Pierre Barreaut.

William James in his Naval History of Great Britain - Vol II, picks up the action:

USS Constellation vs L’Insurgente - Patrick O'Brien
https://www.patrickobrienstudio.com/battle-paintings

'On the 9th of February, at noon, the island of Nevis bearing west-south-west distant five leagues, the United States' 36-gun frigate Constellation, Commodore Thomas Truxton, sailing with the wind at north-east, discovered a strange ship to the southward, with, if the French accounts are correct, her main topmast gone. The Constellation, hoisting American colours, bore down; and the stranger, which was the French 36-gun frigate Insurgente, Captain Michel-Pierre Barreaut; hoisted her national colours, and fired a gun to windward. 

Constellation v Insurgente, 9^th February 1799, 12.00, 15 miles ENE of Nevis.

At 3 h. 15 m. p.m., the Insurgente hailed the Constellation; for what purpose, the American accounts are as silent as about the previous loss of the French frigate's main topmast; but if, as the French insist, Captain Barreaut was ignorant of the war, it might be for an explanation of the hostile manner in which the American frigate was approaching. At all events, very soon after the hail, the Constellation, ranging alongside the Insurgente, opened her broadside, and a spirited action ensued, which lasted one hour and 15 minutes; when the French ship, having, as already stated, lost her main topmast, and been in other respects greatly damaged, struck her colours.

The Constellation, out of a complement of about 440 men and boys, had the good fortune, besides receiving little or no injury in hull or spars, to escape with so slight a loss as one man killed and two wounded; while the Insurgente, out of a complement of 340 men and boys, is represented to have lost 29 men killed and 44 wounded.

As this victory, like many we have recorded, was gained by a "36," over a "40," or as most of the English journals had it, "44-gun frigate," there was no end to the panegyrics upon the American Commodore Truxton. Nor was it empty praise alone that the commodore received; for in addition to the substantial testimonials which his transatlantic friends showered upon him, he was presented by the merchants of London with a handsome piece of plate, expressly for having captured a French frigate of superior force.

Detail of the quarterdeck on the Todd model of Constellation.

Commodore Truxton carried his prize to the island of St.-Kitt's. The Insurgente cruised for a few years in the American service, and was then intended to be restored to France; but, in the mean time, she became lost at sea. Captain Barreaut, towards the end of the present year, was tried by a court-martial at Lorient for the loss of his ship, and, after an investigation which lasted nine days, honourably acquitted, chiefly because of the enormous disparity of force between the two vessels.

Of the relative force in the above case it will be sufficient to state that the Constellation at this time mounted, although she afterwards exchanged them for eighteens, 28 long 24-pounders on the main deck, and 10 long 12-pounders, with ten 32-pounder carronades, on the quarterdeck and forecastle; total 48 guns. the French say 50. The Insurgente was armed, according to the French accounts, with " trente-six canons," meaning without her four carronades; making her guns in all 40; as enumerated in Commodore Truxton's letter. . .'

With most of the French fleet confined to home ports by the Royal Navy, US Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin Stoddert was able to concentrate his forces against the limited number of frigates and smaller vessels that evaded the blockade and reached the Caribbean. The US also needed convoy protection, and while there was no formal agreement with the British, considerable co-operation took place at a local level. The two navies shared a signal system, and allowed their merchantmen to join each other's convoys, most of which were provided by the British, who had four to five times more escorts available.

Leaving the island of St Kitts on the 30th January 1800, Truxton recorded in his dispatch to Stoddert;

'the Constellation in excellent trim, and stood to windward, in order to gain the station for myself before the Road of Guadaloupe; and at half past seven A.M. of the day following I discovered a sail to the S.E. to which I gave chase. . . '

Constellation v Vengeance, 1^st February 1800, 07.30, 15 miles E of Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe.

USS Constellation engaging la Vengeance - Irwin John Bevan

On the 2nd of February 1800, USS Constellation, Captain Thomas Truxtun, engaged the French frigate la Vengeance, commanded by Louis-Marie Picot, in a five-hour battle. Vengeance struck her colours several times, but was not observed by Constellation. With Constellation’s mast shot away, Vengeance eluded capture.

William James gives the following account of this encounter;

'Having given an account of the first engagement fought between an American and a French frigate, we shall offer no apology for inserting in these pages an account of the second. 

On the 1st of February, at 7 h. 30 m. A.M., the United States' 36-gun frigate Constellation, still commanded by Commodore Thomas Truxton, being about five leagues to the westward of Basseterre-road, Guadaloupe, working to windward, discovered in the south-east quarter, standing south-west, the French 40-gun frigate Vengeance, Captain Sébastien-Louis-Marie Pichot.

Constellation v Vengeance, 1^st February 1800, 07.30, 15 miles E of Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe.

The American commodore immediately went in chase; and M. Pichot ran from him, for the reason, as alleged afterwards by some of the French officers, that the Vengeance had her decks encumbered with hogsheads of sugar, which she had brought from Guadaloupe, and was carrying to Europe. Let that have been as it may, at 8 P.M. the Constellation got within hail of the Vengeance, and received a fire from her stern and quarter guns. In a little time the former, having gained a position on the French frigate's weather quarter, opened a very destructive fire; and to which, from her position, the Constellation received a much less effective return, than if she had run fairly alongside. The mutual cannonade continued, in this manner, until nearly 1 a.m. on the 2d; when the Vengeance, owing to the damaged state of the Constellation's rigging and masts, particularly her mainmast, was enabled to range ahead out of gunshot, and the battle ended.

The force of the Constellation, in guns, men, and size, has already been given. The armament of the Vengeance, with the addition of four brass 36-pounder carronades, was the same as that of her sister-ship, the Resistance, captured in March, 1797; and her complement may also be stated the same as the latter's, exclusive of about 60 passengers.

The loss sustained by the American frigate amounted to one officer and 13 seamen and marines killed, and two officers and 23 seamen and marines wounded. That of the Vengeance is represented, in the American accounts, at 150 in killed and wounded; but, according to a published letter from one of her passengers, it amounted to only 20 men killed and 40 wounded.

The officer killed on board the Constellation was Mr. James Jervis, a young midshipman, who, with some of the men, fell overboard with the mainmast. " It seems this young gentleman," says Commodore Truxton, "was apprized of the mast going in a few minutes, by an old seaman ; but he had already so much of the principle of an officer ingrafted on his mind, not to leave his quarters on any account, that he told the men, if the mast went, they must go with it; which shortly afterwards occurred, and only one man was saved."

Constellation v Vengeance - Arthur N Sr. Disney

Although, undoubtedly, the American frigate was the superior both in force and effectiveness, yet, had the Constellation made a prize of the Vengeance, no one can deny that it would have redounded to the honour of Commodore Truxton, and been a subject of fair triumph to so young a navy as that of the United States. But, if it be true, as the French captain is represented to have stated, that the flag of the Vengeance came down three times during the contest, what was the Constellation about that she did not attempt to take possession? It would seem that the Constellation, notwithstanding she was to windward, persisted in remaining at too great a distance from her antagonist, to observe, in the dark, what the latter was doing. According to Captain Pichot's account, indeed, the Vengeance lost all three masts by the Constellation's fire; and yet Commodore Truxton, although so minute in his " Journal " as to tell us that, previous to the action, he got " the large trumpet in the lee gangway ready to speak " the French frigate, takes no notice of the loss of her masts.

Henry Turner has nicely captured the look of Constellation with her 10 x 32-pdr carronades seen along her quarterdeck and forecastle. A Warlord boat stack and figurehead finish off the effect.

The most extraordinary circumstance, however, remains to be told. The Vengeance, M. Pichot declares, was compelled, owing to the inexperience of her crew, to remain stationary for three days, while jury-masts were erecting; and, during the whole of that time, the Constellation lay to windward, with her fore and mizen masts still standing (her mainmast had fallen a few minutes after the firing had ceased), and yet did not bear down, or evince the least inclination, to renew the engagement. The Constellation, soon afterwards, made sail for and anchored in Port-Royal, Jamaica; and the Vengeance, no less happy than surprised at such an escape, steered for Curacoa, where she arrived in a very shattered state.'

French Frigate La Virginie

The French navy started moving towards larger frigates during the American War of Independence capable of carrying 18-pounder guns, opting for a 40-gun design as their standard frigate such as this one Incorruptable designed to carry 24-pounders as the main armament, but often equipped with 18-pdrs when operating outside of European waters. 

La Virginie was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, the lead ship of its class of ten such frigates designed in 1793 by Jacques-Noël Sané.

Virginie's general characteristics are:

Tons burthen 1390 tons (bm)

Length of gundeck 146 feet 

Beam 36 feet , 8 inches

Depth of hold 17 feet

Henry Turner's model, nicely captures the sleek hull design of these large French frigates and the Warlord boat stack and masts nicely set off the look of La Virginie

Her armament consisted of:

Gundeck: 28 x 18-pounder long guns

Quarterdeck & Forecastle: 12 x 8-pounders long guns and 4 x 36-pounder carronades (obusiers).

Lines from the Surveillante, a Virginie class frigate launched in May 1802 and captured by the Royal Navy on the 30th November 1803.

La Virginie was launched in Brest on the 26th July 1794 and would take part in the Battle of Groix on the 23rd of June 1795, with Virginie, under the command of  Lieutenant Jacques Bergeret was heavily engaged on the 17th June, when the lead elements of French Vice-admiral Villaret de Joyeuse caught up with the retreating British squadron of Vice-admiral William Cornwallis in an action later called 'Cornwallis's Retreat', but no casualty number in the action was recorded.

Cornwallis's Retreat, June 17, 1795 - Thomas Luny

On the 20th of  April 1796, Virginie was cruising off Ireland under captain Jacques Bergeret when she encountered a British squadron under Commodore Edward Pellew, comprising the Razee 44 gun HMS Indefatigable and the frigates Argo, Concord, Révolutionnaire, Amazon and their prize Unité, captured on the 13th of April.

Indefatigable vs Virginie, 20^th April 1796, Early Morning, Nr. Lizard

La Virginie's nemesis, and my take on HMS Indefatigable
JJ's Wargames - All at Sea, Razees

William James' account lays out the events of this encounter;

'On the 20th of April, in the morning, as Sir Edward Pellew, having despatched home the Révolutionnaire and her prize, was lying to, while the latter weathered the Lizard, a suspicious sail appeared coming in from the seaward. Her not answering the private signal, when she tacked from the squadron, marked her out as an enemy; and Sir Edward, having ordered the Argo to Plymouth, made all sail in chase, accompanied by the frigates Amazon and Concorde.

In Pursuit of Virginie - John Chancellor

After a chase of 15 hours, and a run of 168 miles, the Indefatigable, from her superior sailing, was enabled to come up with the strange frigate; whom the wind had prevented from steering for Ushant, otherwise she must have escaped. 

At a little past midnight the action commenced, and continued, at close quarters, both ships under a crowd of sail, during one hour and 45 minutes, The French frigate, by this time, had lost her mizenmast and main topmast, and was otherwise greatly crippled; nor was the Indefatigable much less disabled, leaving lost her gaff and mizen topmast, as well as the use of her main topsail, both leech-ropes having been shot away.

Indefatigable vs Virginie, 20^th April 1796, Early Morning, Nr. Lizard

Having no after-sail to back, the Indefatigable unavoidably shot past her opponent; and, owing to the latter's masterly manoeuvres, had some difficulty, in this dilemma, to avoid being raked. While the Indefatigable lay ahead, reeving new braces, in order to come to the wind and renew the action, the Concorde (the Amazon not far behind) got up, and took a commanding position under the stern of the French ship. Whereupon the latter, having four feet water in the hold, and being greatly damaged in hull, masts, and rigging, fired a lee-gun and struck her light, as a signal of surrender.

The prize proved to be the French 40-gun frigate Virginie, Captain Jacques Bergeret, a remarkably fine ship, and armed precisely according to the establishment of her class. 

The stoutly built Virginie with her four d6 broadside which she can increase 
to seven d6, should she choose to knock down some rigging with an
initial broadside, makes her a formidable opponent to Indefatigable.

The Indefatigable was a cut-down 64-gun ship, and mounted 26 long 24-pounders on the main deck, and two long 12-pounders and 18 42-pounder carronades on the quarterdeck and forecastle, total 46 guns, with a complement of 330 men and boys. Of these the Indefatigable, like the Artoise in the last action, did not lose a man. The Virginie, on the contrary, out of her crew of 339 men and boys, as deposed to by her officers, had only one less than is stated in Captain Pellew's letter, lost 14 or 15 men killed and 27 wounded, 10 of then badly.

Capture of La Virginie by HMS Indefatigable – Thomas Luny

This statement shows that the French frigate, except in number of men, was greatly inferior to the ship with which she fought; yet Captain Bergeret did not surrender until a second frigate was preparing to rake him, and a third approaching under all sail to join in the action. No one was more ready than Sir Edward Pellew himself, to do justice to his enemy on this occasion.

The Virginie, as we have already stated, was a remarkably fine frigate, and became, in consequence, a valuable acquisition to the class of British 38s.'

In my next 'All at Sea' post I'll feature some of my other new 3D printed additions from Turner miniatures - more anon.

JJ