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French Flute "Le Chameau" (Camel), 1717


LeBoiteux

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French Flute "Le Chameau" (Camel), 1717

 

Launched : 1717

Fate : 1725

(sank after being swept onto the rocks by a storm)

Displacement : 540-650 tons

Keel : 135 ft (41,1 m)

Beam : 31 ft (9,4 m)

Draught : 15 ft (4,6 m)

 

Armament : 44 guns

(twenty 12-pounder cannons (lower gun deck), two more in the stern and twenty-two 6-pounders (upper deck))

"Due to the threat of war (...) large flutes like the Chameau were fitted to carry extra artillery

so they could travel the seas without naval escort.

In fact, (she) often served as an escort for other vessels."

 

Designed by french naval architect Blaise Ollivier, after visiting English and Dutch shipyards :

"Combining French construction principles with those he had observed in the yards along the Thames and the Zuiderzee,

(he) modified the ship's lines and redistributed shipboard batteries, making for a faster vessel with increased cargo capacity."   

"One of the fastest and best equipped ships in the royal navy of France."

 

Assignment : carriage of supplies, people and funds from France to Quebec and Louisbourg.

She had aboard a number of French dignitaries, including the new Intendant of Canada, Me de Chazel. 

 

 

Wreckage located by treasure Hunter Alex Storm in 1965.

AczzucW.jpg

 

Alex Storm's ship model

and Le Chameau's sister ship, La Néréide (1724)

(poor quality pictures) 

http://capebretonsmagazine.com/modules/publisher/item.php?itemid=3811

 

 

About Le Chameau

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Chameau

http://capebretonsmagazine.com/modules/publisher/item.php?itemid=3809

http://www.blupete.com/Hist/Gloss/Chameau.htm

http://cbmuseums.tripod.com/LMM.html

 

 

(Model pictures and plans needed...)

 

 

About camels...

Seven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Camel, after the camel.

( source :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Camel )

+

A "Ship camel" is an "external floatation tank that can be fitted to a ship to increase her buoyancy or reduce her draught".

Invented in 1690 by Maeuwis Meindertsz Bakker (Amsterdam).

( source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_Camel )

Edited by LeBoiteux
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Plans are obviously not the same ship.

I found on internet the hypothesis of several contemporary flutes called Le Chameau (in french) : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discussion:Chameau_(voilier)

 

Furthermore, threedecks.org identify three Chameau (one catboat without any gun and two "fifth-rate Flutes" with 40 and 36 guns) before Chapman's 1765 plan : http://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=ships_search

 

The longitudinal view of La Néréide, Chameau's  sister ship according to A. Storm, looks more accurate than Chapman's plan for a 40-guns flute : http://capebretonsmagazine.com/modules/publisher/item.php?itemid=3811

with her two gun-decks and 42 guns  : http://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=11302

 

Anybody knows ?

Edited by LeBoiteux
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Next the book of Joël Pierre, who identify all ships in Rochefort, it does not found in the period of the game the ship name le Chameau.

Just a "chatte" (I do not know the term in English) of 100tx built in 1738 and write off the lists in 1757 and then as a barge built in 1836 and write off lists in 1878.

There is nowhere mention the construction of a flute with this name.

This ship he really was built in Rochefort?

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Next the book of Joël Pierre, who identify all ships in Rochefort, it does not found in the period of the game the ship name le Chameau.

Just a "chatte" (I do not know the term in English) of 100tx built in 1738 and write off the lists in 1757 and then as a barge built in 1836 and write off lists in 1878.

English term for "Chatte" must be "Catboat", that is a "cat-rigged sailboat, a sailing vessel characterized by a single mast carried well forward, i.e. near the front of the boat".

I guess your "chatte" correspond to the Catboat mentioned at http://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=22227

 

I don't know whether or not the flute was built in Rochefort :

- To Alex Storm (the treasure hunter who found the wreckage), the flute was built in Rochefort by Blaise Ollivier : e. g.  http://capebretonsmagazine.com/modules/publisher/item.php?itemid=3811 

- But, some say (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discussion:Chameau_(voilier)) :

- one Flute was built in 1716 in Hollande, 

- another in 1717 at Brest by Hubac,

- and Ollivier's one would have been built in... 1744.

 

A real mystery ;) .

Edited by LeBoiteux
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I did some online research. No big news but some of the informations on which I have relied seem to be misleading :

 

The shipbuilder

- Blaise Ollivier was born in 1701 and built his first ship, Le Saint Louis, in 1722, so he couldn't have built Le Chameau in 1717 (at the age of 16)...

- He traveled in England and Holland in 1737 where he observed in the yards. Then he wrote a naval treatise (published in 1743). As Le Chameau is said to be an adaptation / improvement of english and dutch plans, the french flute should have been built after his trip in 1737. And Ollivier died in 1746... 

One web contributor suggested 1744 for the flute... : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discussion:Chameau_(voilier)

It could be that.

 

On the other hand, Surcouf, Ollivier seems to have worked a bit in Rochefort but longer in Brest. He worked in Brest in 1737. Chances are Le Chameau was built there.

 

His treatise :

Despite I haven't read it, Ollivier's treatise seems to be interesting :

- first because it presents plans of english and dutch ships (always interesting, isn't it ?) :

see pictures / plans of the Twikkelo (1725) and the Nottingham at ancre.fr's web site (see below).

- Furthermore, these plans seem quite similar to Le Chameau's...

However, if anyone had this treatise or could get it, it could be great.

 

Ancre's introduction to the treatise :

"In 1737, Blaise Ollivier, Master Shipwright at Brest, was ordered by Maurepas, the French Minister of the navy, to go to England and Holland in order to find out everything possible about how ships were build there, and what France might usefully imitate. Ollivier's secret mission lasted nearly five months, during which time he visited all the major naval dockyards of both country except Plymouth. At the conclusion he wrote (it)"

 

Treatise at :

http://www.musee-marine.fr/content/traite-de-construction (Bibliothèque du Musée de la Marine)

http://ancre.fr/en/ouvrages-de-base-en/43-remarques-sur-la-marine-des-anglais-et-hollandais.html

 

Source :

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise-Joseph_Ollivier

http://gallica.bnf.fr/searchInPeriodique?arkPress=cb32860483w%2Fdate&spe=blaise+ollivier

Edited by LeBoiteux
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