French frigate Belle Poule (1765)

Type

Frigate

Period

18th Century

Nation

France

Overview: Belle Poule was a French Dédaigneuse-class frigate built at Bordeaux, renowned for her single-ship action against the British frigate HMS Arethusa on 17 June 1778, an engagement that effectively opened French participation in the American War of Independence. Specifications: She was built between March 1765 and early 1767 in Bordeaux to a design by Léon-Michel Guignace. According to Wikipedia's general characteristics, she measured about 43 m (141 ft) in length with an 11.2 m (37 ft) beam and 4.9 m (16 ft) draught, displaced roughly 1,150 tonneaux (620 tons burthen), carried a complement of 8 officers plus 260 men, and was armed with 26 x 12-pounder guns and 4 x 6-pounder guns on a full-rigged ship sail plan. Service History: Belle Poule served two campaigns in the West Indies, where her good sailing qualities led to her being chosen for France's first experimental coppering of a hull to resist marine growth. From 1772 to 1776 she undertook hydrographic survey missions, a voyage during which the young officer La Pérouse first came to the attention of his superiors. In December 1777 she was tasked with ferrying diplomat Silas Deane back to America along with news of the Franco-American alliance, and on 7 January 1778 she was stopped by the British ships of the line Hector and Courageux, an episode that nearly triggered war before the famous Arethusa engagement that June. She was eventually captured by HMS Nonsuch off the Loire on 14/16 July 1780 and taken into Royal Navy service as HMS Belle Poule, where she remained until being broken up in 1801. Notable Facts: The Belle Poule–Arethusa action was celebrated in France, inspiring the fashionable "coiffure à la Belle Poule" hairstyle and giving her name to a later, more famous 19th-century French frigate. Contemporary artists including Nicolas Ozanne and Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy depicted the battle, and later marine painters such as Charles Edward Dixon, William Heysham Overend, and Francis Swaine also portrayed the engagement, giving modelers several period and near-period visual references to work from. A dedicated modeling monograph on Belle Poule is published by Ancre, offering detailed plans for scratch-builders.