The destruction of the French warship Droifs de /’Hornme, 14 January 1797

[knocker]

On the 13th of January 1797 shortly after midday two British frigates sighted an unidentified French ship off the coast of Brittany.  The frigates, Indefatigable, Captain Sir Edward Pellew, and Amazon, Captain Robert Reynolds, immediately gave chace and by four o’clock in the afternoon observed the ship to be a large vessel with two tiers of guns.  She was in fact the French 74 gun ship of the line Les Droits de L’Homme, Captain Jean Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse, a remnant of the failed expedition to Ireland, loaded with troops, horses and military hardware.  At a quarter to five, with “the wind blowing very hard and a great sea†[1] the chace carried away her fore and main topmast and the Indefatigable lost her steering sail booms.   Undeterred, with the Amazon still eight miles astern, the Indefatigable brought the enemy to close action.  Although Les Droits de L’Homme carried a significantly heavier broadside, she was hampered by the high sea and unable to open her lower gun ports to bring her heavy lower deck battery to bear.

 

Cont..................................

 

https://indefatigable1797.wordpress.com/tag/droits-de-lhomme/

 

The climatic background to a famous event in English naval history.

 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.1477-8696.1999.tb06444.x/pdf

 

Droits de lHomme sinking

[Snowycat]

Agh, what a shame for all those horses, innocent creatures wrapped up mans troubles......

[knocker]

Agh, what a shame for all those horses, innocent creatures wrapped up mans troubles......

 

Well..............................................

 

A million horses went to war and only 62, 000 returned. From Australia 121, 000 were sent and only one returned.

 

https://forum.netweather.tv/topic/79118-forgotten-heroes/