Hermione reconstructed as an eighteenth-century frigate

The modern Hermione was completed at Rochefort as a sailing reconstruction of the Concorde-class frigate associated with Lafayette's 1780 voyage. Her Atlantic voyages and extensive construction record provide unusually tangible evidence for how these ships looked and worked. Photographs of the full-size vessel beside construction models make the scale and complexity of an eighteenth-century frigate unusually accessible. The reconstruction later becomes evidence in a discussion of whether Napoleonic frigates had reached design perfection.