Fragments of Sémillante, on display at Port-Louis naval museum
History
French Navy EnsignFrance
NameSémillante
Namesake"Sparkling"or "frisky"
BuilderLorient
Laid down13 March 1827
Launched6 February 1841
Stricken15 February 1855
FateWrecked 16 February 1855
General characteristics
Class and typeSurveillante-class frigate
Displacement2500 tonnes
Length54 metres (177 ft)
Beam14.10 metres (46.3 ft)
Draught3.80 metres (12.5 ft)
Propulsionsail
Complement301
Armament
ArmourTimber

The Sémillante was a Surveillante class 60-gun first rank frigate of the French Navy. She sank off the coast of Corsica in 1855 with a loss of 693 people.

Career

Sémillante took part in the Crimean war from 1854 as a transport. In February 1855, under Captain Jugan, she departed Toulon with a crew of 301 and 392 soldiers as reinforcements for the French army[1]

On 15 February 1855, in the Strait of Bonifacio near the Lavezzi Islands, Sémillante was caught in a storm. Lost in a thick fog, a gust of wind drove the ship into rocks on Ile Lavezzi, the 200 ha main island of the archipelago. The ship sank around midnight with all hands.

Monument

For weeks, bodies of the victims washed up on the shore of Île Lavezzi. The remains of 600 of the people on board were eventually recovered and buried in the Achiarino cemetery on the island. Only the captain's grave is marked by name. A 27-foot-high (8.2 m) pyramid of boulders was built as a remembrance of the disaster.

The wreck is cited as a triggering event that raised public awareness of naval disasters and spurred the creation of coastal rescue organizations.[2]

See also

Citations

  1. ↑ "Napoleon". Archived from the original on 2008-05-27. Retrieved 2008-06-14.
  2. ↑ Nora, Pierre (2001). Rethinking France: Les Lieux de Mémoire, Volume 2: Space. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-59133-9. Retrieved 26 August 2020.

References

  • Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671–1870. Roche. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
  • Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French warships in the age of sail, 1786-1861. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-184832-204-2.

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