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French frigate Amphitrite (1808)

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French Navy ship For other ships with the same name, see French ship Amphitrite.

History
France
NameAmphitrite
NamesakeAmphitrite
Ordered6 January 1806
Laid downAugust 1806
Launched11 April 1808
Commissioned1808
FateScuttled 3 February 1809
General characteristics
Class and typeArmide-class frigate
Displacement1,330 tonnes
Length47 m (154 ft 2 in)
Beam12 m (39 ft 4 in)
Draught5.5 m (18 ft 1 in)
PropulsionSail
Complement339
Armament
  • 24 × 18-pounder long guns
  • 12 × 12-pounder guns
ArmourTimber

Amphitrite was a 44-gun Armide-class frigate of the French Navy that saw service during the Napoleonic Wars.

Ordered on 6 January 1806, Amphitrite was laid down at Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France, in August 1806. She was launched on 11 April 1808 and completed later that year.

Under the command of Frigate captain Jean François Denis de Keredern de Trobriand, Amphitrite departed Cherbourg bound for Martinique on 10 November 1808 as part of a squadron under the overall command of Contre-Amiral Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin that also included the frigates Vénus and Junon, the brig Cygne, and the vessel Papillon The next day, the squadron broke up.

Amphitrite arrived at Fort-de-France, Martinique, only to find it blockaded by the British Royal Navy. She managed to slip through and reach the harbour. On 3 February 1809, as the British attacked Martinique, the French scuttled Amphitrite to prevent her capture.

In 1960, construction work on a modern commercial harbour in Fort de France uncovered the bottom of the hull of Amphitrite. Copper sheets of the hull and other fragments were recovered and are now on display at the Service Régional de l'Archéologie.

References

  1. ^ François Marie 2ème Denis de Keredern de Trobriand

14°36′00″N 61°03′43″W / 14.600°N 61.062°W / 14.600; -61.062

Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1809
Shipwrecks
Other incidents
1808 1810
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