French ship Ville de Varsovie

Robuste, sister ship of Ville de Varsovie
History
France
Name	Ville de Varsovie
Namesake	Warsaw
Ordered	30 April 1804
Builder	Arsenal de Rochefort
Laid down	22 March 1805
Launched	10 May 1808
Commissioned	18 June 1808
Fate	Destroyed by fire on 13 April 1809
General characteristics
Class and type	Bucentaure-class
Type	ship of the line
Tons burthen	2000 tonnes
Length	59.3 m (194.55 ft) (overall) 53.92 m (176.90 ft) (keel)
Beam	15.3 m (50.20 ft)
Depth of hold	7.8 m (25.59 ft)
Propulsion	Sail
Sail plan	2,683 m^2 (28,879.57 sq ft)
Complement	866
Armament	80 guns 30 × 36-pounders 32 × 24-pounders 18 × 12-pounders (12 aft, 6 forecastle) 6 × 36-pounder howitzers

The Ville de Varsovie was a Bucentaure-class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, designed by Chaumont from original plans by Sané.

The ship was laid down at Arsenal de Rochefort in Rochefort, France, as Tonnant on 22 March 1805. In 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte established the Duchy of Warsaw and made a considerable effort to mobilize Polish national sentiment on France's behalf, and accordingly Tonnant was renamed Ville de Varsovie ("City of Warsaw") while still under construction. She was launched on 10 May 1808. Commissioned on 18 June 1808 under Captain Mahé, he became part of the Rochefort squadron.

In April 1809, Ville de Varsovie was part of the French Atlantic Fleet blockaded in Basque Roads at the mouth of the Charente on the Biscay coast of France by a Royal Navy squadron. On the afternoon of 12 April, during the Battle of Basque Roads, Ville de Varsovie was aground on rocks at low tide in Basque Roads near Charenton when British warships attacked.^[1] After two hours of pounding by the British fleet with little chance to fire back, Ville de Varsovie surrendered after her crew suffered about 100 casualties,^[2][3] and the British 74-gun third rate ship of the line HMS Revenge captured her.^[4] Although the leader of the British attack, Lord Thomas Cochrane, disapproved of the decision, the commanding officer of the 74-gun third rate ship of the line HMS Valiant, Captain John Bligh, deemed Ville de Varsovie beyond repair and set her afire during the night of 12–13 April 1809. The fire completed the destruction of Ville de Varsovie during the predawn hours of 13 April 1809.^[5]

Citations

1. James, William (2002) [1827]. The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume 5, 1808–1811. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-909-3, p. 111.
2. Clowes, William Laird (1997) [1900]. The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to 1900, Volume V. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-014-0, p. 264.
3. James, William (2002) [1827]. The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume 5, 1808–1811. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-909-3, p. 115.
4. "French Fleet". Caledonian Mercury. No. 13634. 6 May 1809.
5. Cordingley, David (2007). Cochrane the Dauntless. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7475-8088-1, p. 200.

References

• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671–1870. p. 470. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.