French ship Polonais (1808)

Polonais was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Polonais (1808), on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris.
History
France
NamePolonais
Namesake
Ordered25 February 1804
BuilderLorient
Laid down4 July 1804
Launched27 May 1808
Commissioned25 July 1808
RenamedLys, 1814
Stricken1822
FateBroken up, 1825
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeTéméraire-class ship of the line
Displacement
  • 2,966 tonnes
  • 5,260 tonnes fully loaded
Length55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied)
Beam14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in)
Draught7.26 metres (23.8 ft) (22 pied)
PropulsionUp to 2,485 m2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails
Armament
ArmourTimber

First named Glorieux, she was renamed on 23 February 1807.

In 1809, under Captain Mequet, she departed Lorient, France with Troude's squadron, bound for the Caribbean. The squadron included D'Hautpoul and Courageux. On 29 March, the ships arrived at the Saintes and landed reinforcements.

On 29 May, Polonais and Courageux reached Cherbourg, France along with seven prize ships captured on the way. D'Hautpoul had been captured in the action of 14–17 April 1809.

In April 1814, at the Bourbon Restoration, Polonais was renamed Lys captained by Troude. She then ferried Louis XVIII back to France. She was briefly renamed Polonais during the Hundred Days of Napoleon, and then back to Lys again.

After the Bourbon Restoration, Lys was sent to retake possession of the island of Martinique, along with the frigate Érigone and the corvette Vésuve. The squadron arrived at Fort Royal on 5 October 1814.[2]

From 1822, she was used as a storage hulk, and she was broken up in Brest on 1825.

Citations edit

  1. ^ Clouet, Alain (2007). "La marine de Napoléon III : classe Téméraire – caractéristiques". dossiersmarine.free.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 23 March 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  2. ^ Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours, 1671–1870. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. p. 461. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.

References edit

  • Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours, 1671–1870. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. p. 356. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.