L’Hermione

sailing the Frigate of Liberty Part 6

Roger Marsh and Fiona Clark Echlin Photo 1. Construction begins.

t the end of Part 5, our new frigate had in all in the shelter of the Île d’Aix, almost under the Arespects been readied for sea and the last of guns of Fort Boyard. There the crew re-hoisted her boats had been swung on board and stowed l’Hermione’s upper masts and yards, in preparation in the waist. She sailed on 7th September 2014 for putting to sea under . from Rochefort, down the Charente River towards the Atlantic. A multi-gun salute was fired as she The 2014 training voyages of l’Hermione left, as a gesture of farewell to her home port. The The series of short voyages undertaken over the were struck to allow her to pass under next months had the aims of evaluating the ship and the 1900-built Rochefort-Martrou Transporter testing her in all possible respects and conditions, Bridge, with its air clearance of ‘only’ 160', and of training the crew that will take her across the she proceeded under the power of her two electric Atlantic in the spring of 2015 and of learning about pod motors, each of 400hp (300kw), to anchor the vessel’s individual sailing and manoeuvring

20 Ships in Scale March/April 2015 We are privileged to have the chance of working with the well-known maritime photographer Nigel Pert on this part of our series on l’Hermione.

Nigel has photographed since childhood, having got his first camera at the age of seven. He worked as a photographer from his studio in Nottingham, England, for a number of years, but his passion for the sea and ships did not become fully fledged until several life-changing events of the early 1980s, particularly when he joined the crew of a yacht sailing from the South of France to the Caribbean. It was the 1992 Festival of the Sea in Brest, France, Photo 92. Capitaine Yann Cariou in dress uniform. that really made his name as a photographer of Note the traditional red of the French officers’ ships and the sea; from there he has never looked uniforms. back. Since then, ships, boats and the people who sail them have been his main subjects. His particular love is for traditional sailing vessels of all kinds, though he is quite happy to cover more characteristics and needs. And, of , of modern types too. practising over and over again the execution of Much-published in high-quality European maritime all the necessary tasks on board, from cooking to magazines such as the British Classic Boat, the reefing. Italian Arte Navale and the French Chasse-Marée, On the 9th September l’Hermione catted and Nigel was the natural choice as a photographer to record the first passages under sail of such a classic stowed her anchor to begin her real career under vessel as the new 32-gun frigate Hermione. He sail. The topmen (this term includes the very himself has said, in an interview: “Photographing capable women in the crew!) raced aloft, set sail, boats is very physical, especially in the way I do sheeted home and began the new frigate’s first it – trying to always be involved in the heart of the passage. Through the next months, she spent time action.” That approach leads to the results seen in Nigel’s pictures in these pages; he will be found at sea off the Atlantic coast of France, through the aloft in heavy winds as sail is taken in or out on the Bay of Biscay, between her home port of Rochefort, as the ship pitches into a seaway, always calling at such ports and anchorages as Bordeaux, at the centre of whatever is going on, sharing the Brest, Douarnenez, the French Atlantic islands hazards and hardships of the crew, never seeking such as l’Île d’Aix, les Raz du Sein. She poked the the safe option. nose of her figurehead lion into the western English Nigel divides his life between his house in England and his home in Normandy, Northern Channel (‘la Manche’), spending at least one night France, where he likes to spend most of his time anchored in the company of her erstwhile enemies when not at sea. His blog may be found at http:// in the Carrick Roads, off the port of Falmouth in nigelpert.wordpress.com. We are very pleased to the south of Cornwall, England. On her return have him on board for this special issue. passage from there to the Rade de Brest the frigate

March/April 2015 Ships in Scale 21 Photo 93 (above). The new frigate Hermione lies alongside at the impressive quayside of Bordeaux.

Photo 94 (below). With upper masts struck to allow passage under the Rochefort-Martrou Bridge, l’Hermione leaves Rochefort.

22 Ships in Scale March/April 2015 Photo 95. Change devant! Foremast haul! Tacking, the waisters man the fore braces. encountered some of the strongest winds she has yet met (gusting up to Force 9) and experienced some of the most demanding, interesting and informative sailing conditions to date – all of which provided excellent training and learning conditions for her new officers and crew. Approximately 150 men and women were trained through the autumn of 2014, two complete crews. The original frigate on her famous 1780 voyage carrying Lafayette to Boston carried a total of over

Photo 97. Main filling and fore backed, Photo 96. At the helm. a-shiver, whilst tacking; about to execute foremast haul.

March/April 2015 Ships in Scale 23 Photo 98. ‘Le bosco’ – bo’s’un and master rigger Jens Langert. three times the number of her modern sailing crew of 75, but of course those numbers of Photo 99. A view from the bowsprit. men and more were needed to fight and supply the guns in action, together with marines for musketry and for boarding an enemy, quite apart from the officers, petty officers and boys. One single 12-pounder gun had a crew of around 10 men stationed at it, for example, so over 150 were required just to man the guns in action.

Old vs new propulsive technology The two modern auxiliary electric pod motors were also tested, early on in the evaluation of the vessel as a sailing and passage-making machine. After only a few hours of running, one of them overheated and seized. The frigate immediately re-set sail – her principal and original propulsive power – and soon hove to in order to lower a diver over the side to inspect the propellers. On returning on board, he reported that there was no apparent external blockage. Captain Cariou ordered the ship to be taken to La Pallice, the nearby commercial port by La Rochelle, where she stayed for several days whilst awaiting repair or replacement of the defective item. Little more need, really, be said; that event speaks for itself. Except, perhaps, to remark that an 18th Century was a very self-sufficient vessel, good for months of passage at sea when well equipped, carrying Photo 100. Firing a salute as the frigate leaves with her the trades of carpenter, sailmaker and Bordeaux.

24 Ships in Scale March/April 2015 Photo 101. L’Hermione’s stem slices through the waves with ease, its lion looking ahead.

Photo 102. Larboard bows, at sea. Note stowed anchor, fore- boomkin, , with drainage holes.

March/April 2015 Ships in Scale 25 bo’s’un together with their tools and materials. Those were able, with their teams of mates, to repair or replace almost any item of the ship or its equipment, as needed. A ship’s principal dependence on the shore, and one of its most limiting factors, was the requirement to replenish supplies of fresh water, and even that essential supply might sometimes be supplemented from harvesting rainfall. After the advent of steam as the main propulsion source of seagoing ships, such independence and self-sufficiency at sea was lost, never to be regained until the modern era, and then only by such rare types as the nuclear- powered submarine, even today. But our main aim here is not to supply a blow-by- blow account of l’Hermione’s sea-passages, tribulations or crew training, but to address what our readers will be most Photo 103. The 1:1-scale model is finally on the pond. interested in finding out: how

26 Ships in Scale March/April 2015 Photo 104. An unusual view from the fore topgallant . a real frigate actually behaves at sea and under sail. We were most fortunate here in having access to one of the most experienced experts in the world today in sailing historic ships of this period.

An interview with the Bo’s’un We had the privilege of talking with Jens Langert about the ship’s sailing performance and handling. Our regular readers will have met Jens in Part 4 of this series; see our September/October 2014 issue. Jens is the master rigger from Sweden who was responsible for the installation of l’Hermione’s masting, sparring and over the recent few years. His website at http://jbriggers.se/ contains a number of excellent illustrations of the frigate, as well as much more very interesting information on a number of other ships and projects in which he has been involved; all in all, well worth a look. Photo 105. Furling the , view from the foretop.

March/April 2015 Ships in Scale 27 He is also this frigate’s bo’s’un, ‘le bosco’, a very appropriate position for someone with such extensive knowledge of traditional ship materials, equipment, rigging and maintenance. A man with great experience of 18th Century ship sailing, particularly that gleaned on the passage of the replica 1738 Swedish East Indiaman Götheborg III to China and back during 2005-07, Jens also well knows in practice how ships of this era behave and what may be expected of them under sail – but every ship is different, of course, and this is a frigate, not an Indiaman. He and the ship’s captain, Yann Cariou, were pleasantly surprised by l’Hermione’s responsiveness and her positive handling characteristics under sail. Compared to a bluffer- bowed, deeper and less fine-lined cargo-carrying merchantman of the era, l’Hermione behaves like the true fine-lined, fast French frigate that she is, living up to all expectations and achieving beyond them in several respects. Her lively performance was immediately apparent on first weighing anchor and sheeting the sails home; she accelerates from her mooring and picks up steerage way very quickly.

General performance & handling The ship behaves well under most points of Photo 106. Furling the mainsail in a treble-reefed topsail gale. Main set. sailing, both by and large.

28 Ships in Scale March/April 2015 She carries her helm just a touch to weather, and virtually steers herself ‘hands-off’, Jens reports – perhaps a tribute also to the excellence of the sail balance her captain and master achieved in passage. “You can forget you are steering”, he says. L’Hermione has a steady, deep and easy roll similar to that described in 1773 in a captain’s report on a British frigate, Lowestoffe, of the same 32-gun 12-pdr rating and similar characteristics, which we have recently quoted; see again Part 4 in our Sept/ October issue. L’Hermione’s metacentric height was estimated at just over 1 meter. Our hopes for l’Hermione in this respect have been fulfilled almost in full. The exception is when sailing directly before the wind in heavy seas, on which point of sailing she rolled very uncomfortably through an arc of up to 30º, which put the most strain on her rigging yet encountered, on recovery from the roll. Sailing a point or two off the wind, on a quartering breeze, greatly eases this motion, as one would expect. L’Hermione makes well to windward for a square-rigger, generally pointing about 50º to the wind and making 60º or so over the ground, in effect making about 10º leeway; she would no doubt fore-reach satisfactorily on most ships of her era. She might, though, perhaps be slightly less weatherly in heavy winds and rough seas than one of the best of the slightly deeper- and relatively shorter typical British frigates of the same era under those particular conditions, though she should outstrip most of those in outright speed further off the wind, in lighter winds and on a flatter sea. These were typical French vs British frigate characteristics of their time, in part determined by differing national strategic needs; outright speed under optimum conditions is not everything, of course.

Staysails, headsails and spritsail Photo 107. Taking in the in heavy weather. Jens’s views on main and mizzen were ambivalent: “of marginal use” he said. These sails are of large area, are blanketed by the square sails and in providing a little forward thrust; it was when sailing downwind (or ‘sailing large’) and, diagonally reefed when any degree of heel was in fact, the main staysail was cut down in order experienced, in order to avoid dipping its lee foot to improve its effectiveness and ease of handling. into the sea as the ship pitched. Its yard, set at an Yet many paintings of frigates of the era, some angle, was also very effectively used to the executed by experienced seamen who were also from below. accomplished artists, show them effectively set and drawing well, especially when sailing Wind and speed ‘by the wind’, or ‘beating’ against it, in modern L’Hermione sailed in many different wind terminology. Usually, one or two headsails were strengths during her trials, from light winds set; the sail-plan allows for three, all of which with most of her plain sail set to a Force 8 gale, were indeed set on occasion. The spritsail was also gusting 9, under treble-reefed and jib. The useful in holding down the when necessary maximum speed achieved approached 12 knots in

March/April 2015 Ships in Scale 29 a ‘topgallant breeze’ of Force 5, with all plain square sail to topgallants set, but at that speed the modern pod motors’ propellers, free-wheeling, were a hindrance; Jens considers she may have made 14 knots without their added drag, which is consistent, again, with Captain Robert Corkett’s 1773 Admiralty report on the somewhat similar HMS Lowestoffe, which at best made 14 knots ‘in a quartering topgallant breeze’, measured by log-line in that era. That frigate’s design by Sir Thomas Slade was derived from that of a prize French privateer greatly esteemed for her sparkling performance, l’Abénakise/HMS Aurora, whose lines had been ‘taken off’ when captured and recorded by the British Admiralty in its usual painstaking manner, as with almost all prizes.

Tacking and wearing Tacking was executed a few times during the autumn 2014 weeks of sea-trials. On most occasions this was achieved positively and without missing , the fore square sails remaining braced on the previous until the ship had passed through the eye of the wind, then the order ‘foremast haul’ given (though in French, 'change devant', bien sûr!) to bring the fore yards round last of all, Photo 108. L’Hermione with a following wind. enabling the fore square sails then to fill and draw on the new tack. minutes and losing no sea-room requiring less manpower and When a tack had been at all – a sparkling performance putting less strain on spars completed, l’Hermione was still for a sailing warship of around and rigging, with no risk of making forward way; she never 1000 tons displacement, built to ‘missing stays’ (as can happen stopped in forward passage or a design of some 230 years ago. when tacking). However, since made a sternboard, so it never They knew a thing or two, did it inevitably sacrifices some became necessary during those those accomplished French naval searoom, plenty of that is needed trials at sea actually to reverse architects of yesteryear. before it is attempted. Wearing the helm when tacking. She tacks Wearing, changing tack and l’Hermione took, variously, smartly and efficiently under course by turning away from between two and five minutes optimum conditions, completing the wind rather than into it, is from start to finish; care had to the manoeuvre in just about two generally a safer manoeuvre, be taken not to cross braces with

30 Ships in Scale March/April 2015 the forward ones of an adjacent further aft nor to foul the two sets, which did indeed happen on one early occasion. But in general, the ship and her crew succeeded in executing that evolution smartly and effectively.

Note for R/C modelers When tacking a square-rigged 18th Century model ship under radio control, that operation almost always does result in the model stopping and then moving astern, ‘making a sternboard’, requiring opposite helm to be applied until the model has, in effect, three-point reverse- turned onto the new tack, with Figure 7. Typical tacking sequence of an 18th-Century ship. Sketch by all the sails filled and headway Jens Langert. now regained on the new tack – though the authors have seen very fine-lined clipper models achieve it in one continuous forward movement, even swinging the sails of all three masts together as the model comes through the eye of the wind. See Jens’s sketches here, which assume that a sternboard is made and the helm reversed, which in fact was not needed with l’Hermione on her trials. Scale effect comes into play here, in various aspects. A fine-lined frigate or model might just make it through the wind’s eye in one, on occasion, in ideal conditions; a model ship of the line or Indiaman never will. A bare minimum of four R/C channels is needed to tack a square-rigged model ship, and preferably more. The same considerations apply to wearing models as to real ships; don’t hit the concrete side of your boating lake as you turn! Searoom is king here too, when wearing ship.

Anchor handling Here there is a more fundamental modern departure from 1780s practice in that chain Photo 109. L'Hermione making good passage under all plain sail to rather than rope anchor cable is topgallants.

March/April 2015 Ships in Scale 31 32 Ships in Scale March/April 2015 great Breton naval base of Brest) in August. Don’t miss a chance to visit this superb ship, if you are anywhere within reach of one of her ports of call, which are planned to stretch from Chesapeake Bay and Yorktown in the south to Halifax, Nova Scotia in the north. Following traditional Trade Winds routes, she will call at the Canaries on the way out. We shall keep you informed; however, if you'd like to follow along yourself you can check the Association Hermione-Lafayette’s website at http:// www.hermione.com/ (in French and English), or keep in touch with them on their American site at http://www.hermione2015.com/, particularly as the US voyage to recreate Lafayette’s historic 1780 Figure 8 (above). L’Hermione’s itinerary, from April voyage approaches. We intend to keep readers 2015 onwards. advised on the possibilities of visiting the ship as Photo 110 (left). The beauty of the "Age of Sail" she calls at various Eastern US and Canadian ports brought back to life. between April and August 2015. used on the modern Hermione – a sensible safety measure, we think; the weight of iron chain ensures a far more horizontal pull to an anchor than can or could be offered by the hempen cable available two centuries and less ago. Chain cable renders it very unlikely that the ship would ever break out an anchor whose holding fluke was embedded in good holding ground, even right at the bitter end. An electric windlass rather than a traditional manned capstan (though these are indeed fitted) is used on l’Hermione to haul in the chain cable. The hawse-holes are metal-lined to withstand the increased abrasion of iron chain, in somewhat similar manner to those to be seen be seen on the surviving 1817 British 38-gun Leda-group frigate Trincomalee as modified and modernized in 1845 to take chain (see our articles on her in our May/June Photo 111. The great cabin and windows. Also visible are a (captured?) British Red Ensign 2011 and July/August 2011 issues). L’Hermione’s and a captain's coat. anchors themselves are of a traditional 18th Century pattern, nevertheless; they are dropped and recovered to their in the old-fashioned Photo credits and acknowledgements manner and are stowed lashed with their flukes just Photographs 1, 93-94,101, 103 and Figure 8 by forward of the fore chains, hauled up to the familiar kind courtesy of l’Association Hermione-La Fayette. position that we would expect to see from our long Portrait of Nigel Pert by Chris Wormald. Figure 7 with thanks to Jens Langert. All other photos by observation of contemporary models and paintings. Nigel Pert. We would particularly like to thank Jens A voyage to North America Langert of Göteborg, Sweden, for his invaluable practical information on sailing the frigate as well By early November all the initial training had as for images, Nigel Pert for sharing his superb successfully been completed, and the ship then photographs taken on board the ship when making returned to her winter quarters in Rochefort. Her passage, John Harland of BC for discussing points volunteer crew was paid off and will re-embark in of seamanship and, as ever, Madame Marine de March 2015 to prepare for l’Hermione’s passage Villartay of the Association Hermione-Lafayette for across the Atlantic to North America from April her continuing supportive help in sourcing images and providing information. onwards, then returning to France (initially to the

March/April 2015 Ships in Scale 33