All at Sea - New French Brigs for Trafalgar

The little 16-gun French brig, Furet can be seen at extreme left of Nicholas Pocock's portrayal of the start of the Battle of Trafalgar.

With preparations for Trafalgar next month at Legionary Exeter front and centre, I realised that I needed to build two new French brigs for the upcoming game as the previous models, based on the generic offering from Warlord Games, as the old models used in previous games were moved to a friends collection at the end of last year.

 

The Abeille class of twenty-one vessels, built between 1801 -1812 included this the Cygne or Swan, and her sister-brig Furet, the subject of my model

So one of the first jobs on my list once the wargames room refit was complete was to get on with building some replacements as soon as time permitted.

My two new brigs will get their first run out at Legionary this year.

My new Henry Turner models of the Abeille class brig arrived just before Xmas from Only Games and had been patiently waiting for some love and attention, and here they are all fitted out ready to take their place in their first battle.

My two new Abeille class brigs from Henry Turner and Only Games, incorporating masts, sails and boats together with other fittings from the Warlord Games model brig. 

Of course the sharp-eyed readers of the blog will immediately spot that the other French brig at Trafalgar, Argus, was one of the Vigilant class of six brigs built between 1800 and 1807 and so until I get around to working on my two Vigilant class brigs from Henry Turner, that arrived in the same order last year, I will be relying on my second Abeille type to act as a stand in until then, no doubt replaced in time for our two-day Trafalgar refight at the FAA Museum at Yeovilton in October for the 220th Anniversary.

The Abeille class was a 16-gun brig-corvette, designed by François Pestel with some units refined by Pierre-Jacques-Nicolas Rolland, and were armed with either 24-pounder carronades, or a mixture of light 6-pounder long guns and lighter carronades, with twenty-one ships of this type built between 1801 and 1812.

Sometimes referred to as the Sylphe class in British sources, after Sylphe, which served as model for subsequent constructions, the four first ships, that included Furet, were ordered in bulk on the 24th December 1800, but two (Mouche and Serin) could not be completed due to shortages of timbers.

Furet was launched in 1801 and commissioned on 25th February 1802 by Lieutenant de vaisseau Demay, who sailed her on a secret mission from Toulon to Mahon on the 23rd June 1802.

1/36th-scale model of the brig-corvette Cygne - Collections of Musée national de la Marine

Furet, with Demay still in command, sailed with Admiral Villeneuve's fleet from Toulon on the 29th March 1805 to Martinique returning to Europe with the fleet and then participating in both the battles of Finisterre and Trafalgar, before ending up at Cadiz, blockaded with the other survivors of the battle becoming part of the division under Lamare de La Meillerie.

On the 23rd October, 1805, in an attempt to retake some of the vessels the British had captured at Trafalgar, Captain Julien Cosmao decided to sortie from Cadiz in company with five ships of-the-line, three French, the 80-gun Indomptable and Neptune, and the 74-gun Pluton, and two Spanish, the 100-gun Rayo and the 74-gun San Francisco de Asis, together with the smaller French ships that had been present at the battle but had not taken part: the frigates Cornélie, Thémis, Hortense, Rhin, and Hermione, and the brigs Furet and Argus.

In preparation for the counter-attack the British cast off several of the prizes and formed a defensive line, allowing the frigates to retake two of the captured prizes, both Spanish ships, the 112-gun Santa Ana and the 80-gun Neptuno.

The losses suffered in the great storm that followed the Battle of Trafalgar
The Trafalgar Companion, Mark Adkin

Of the two recaptured ships, only Santa Ana made it back to Cadiz, when the sortieing ships ran into difficulties in the heavy storm that blew up after the battle, that saw Neptuno run aground and destroyed, while a similar fate befell both Indomptable, after she grounded off Rota, and San Francisco de Asis, in Cadiz Bay, whilst Rayo attempted to anchor off San Lucar and ride out the storm, but rolled out her masts in the heavy seas. HMS Donegal came up, and being unable to resist, Rayo surrendered to her, but was driven on shore on 26th October and wrecked, this disaster leaving just the Neptune which had to be towed back into Cadiz.

The storm after the battle of Trafalgar - Charles Martin Powell

The survivors, including Furet took refuge at Cadiz, where they remained into February 1806.

Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood pulled his ships-of-the-line ten leagues out to sea, leaving only the frigate Hydra, under Captain George Mundy, and the brig-sloop Moselle in close blockade. On the 23rd February a strong easterly wind drove the British off their station, which led the French commander, Captain Lameillerie, to seize the opportunity to escape.

On the evening of the 26th February Hydra and Moselle were three leagues west of the Cadiz lighthouse when they sighted the French squadron, comprising the 40-gun frigates Cornélie, Rhin, Hortense and Hermione, and Furet. Mundy began firing rockets and alarm guns to alert Collingwood, while sailing parallel to the French squadron, and then sent Carden in Moselle to try to locate the British fleet.

Furet and Hydra in action, by George Chambers

On the morning of 27th February Moselle reached Collingwood, who despatched three frigates to try to catch the French, whilst in the meantime, Hydra had managed to isolate Furet from her companions, and after a two-hour chase, captured her. 

The French frigates did not come to their brig's aid, and after firing a pro forma broadside, Furet surrendered, being found to be armed with eighteen 9-pounder guns, and having a crew of 130 men under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Demay. She was provisioned for a cruise of five months.

Under the rules of prize-money, Moselle shared in the proceeds of the capture of Furet.

So if you are planning to come to Legionary, you can get to see my two new French brigs alongside the other seventy-one models we will have on table for our Trafalgar refight.

As always, more anon.

JJ