Action of the 18th June 1799: How to Lose Frigates and Influence (Live)

Armor layout matters as well as total thickness, because plate joints can become weak points and staggered layers can prevent those gaps from lining up.

They were apparently taken to a port and placed on the first ship ready to sail, with no specific vessel assigned in advance.

The opening explains how frigates supported scouting, charting, and blockade-running, and why repeated losses hollowed out French naval skill.

Napoleon's route through Malta to Egypt created a strategic guessing game in which Gibraltar remained Britain's essential Mediterranean gateway.

The proposed advance from Egypt towards India depended on hazardous overland conquest or an improvised ocean crossing that French naval power could not reliably support.

Formal restrictions existed, but many commanders pragmatically ignored them when Catholic, especially Irish, personnel were essential to their crews and regiments.

A Second World War comparison links Gibraltar's value to Hitler's failed efforts to obtain Franco's permission for a German attack through Spain.

Accounts differ between hours and days, but he missed them by only a short interval.

Nelson avoided the cost of feeding captured French sailors by releasing them, leaving Napoleon to employ the survivors on Nile craft, galleys, and the expedition's remaining frigates.

Three frigates and two brigs carried supplies and artillery through loose British and Ottoman blockades after surrendering weapons and ammunition to the French army.

He was a brilliant practical operator filling an undeveloped special-operations role, though some short-term successes could create later problems.

Revolutionary France drew Jean-Baptiste Perrée's merchant experience into a navy short of trained leaders and promoted him with exceptional speed.

Markham's path from a well-connected schoolboy and wartime midshipman to First Naval Lord combined operational experience with patronage and Admiralty service.

Junon's career runs from a peacetime training squadron and West African diplomacy to Sardinian landings, ammunition delivery at Acre, and British service as Princess Charlotte.

Yes; "Boney" was used alongside many ruder names.

It is not really once per century; most centuries have several expansive rulers, although only one or two make a serious attempt at much wider conquest.

HMS Centaur combines the heavy broadside of a versatile 74-gun ship with a later connection to the improvised British fortification of Diamond Rock.

Courageuse served France for about eleven years and Britain for only four, showing that capture did not guarantee a long active career under a new flag.

The full-size Hermione reconstruction puts the frigate type that carried Lafayette to America into working, seagoing form.

Bellona's design family reflects the incremental experiments permitted by British building depth while France sought standardized output.

No; the Royal Navy's Bellona class consisted of 74-gun ships and represented an early form of the 74.

It had real skill, but political upheaval and losses repeatedly broke the transmission of institutional knowledge between generations.

Alceste's French, British, Sardinian, French, and British service captures the fluid ownership of warships in the Revolutionary Wars.

Equivalent ship exchanges were generally absent; vessels changed hands through capture, recapture, and allied transfer.

Captain had an immense gunnery advantage over Alerte, while surviving command dates identify Richard Strachan as the probable captain in the June 1799 chase.

Possibly, but a nighttime surrender could have allowed destroyers to board and secure the engineering spaces before the crew organized a scuttling attempt.

The 1870 loss of the unstable turret ship HMS Captain probably made the name too closely associated with disaster to reuse.

The captured Spanish brig Salamine and the purpose-built British frigate Emerald contrast a repeatedly renamed prize with a heavily armed cruiser that served for four decades.

Alerte was burned, salvaged, rebuilt, and captured again, while Santa Teresa joined the Royal Navy only months before helping pursue Perrée's squadron.

Cochrane was probably more aggressive, but Pellew was the better frigate officer and the preferred commander.

British ships blockading Cádiz obtained fresh food and laundry services from local boats, making civilian commerce part of the squadron's endurance.

Apparently little enough that ordinary sailors as well as officers could afford the service.

Money earned from provisioning and washing British ships gave local civilians an interest in keeping shore batteries from forcing the blockade farther offshore.

Yes; they knew about the blockade and sustained a limited small-boat trade while the British kept more dangerous shore contact at arm's length.

Keith and Markham's dispatches identify the captured French frigates and brigs and assign the British ships that took possession.

The Admiralty secretary who received the 1799 dispatch later served in Ireland, Bombay, Parliament, the Privy Council, and the Royal Society and left place names across the empire.

Weak wind stretched the chase overnight, while Markham anticipated French evasive moves and kept his heavier squadron together.

Two French frigates strike when Bellona closes to a quarter mile, and Courageuse yields after Centaur and Bellona bring overwhelming guns to bear.

Lloyd's List and Markham's official return give sharply different gun and crew totals, demonstrating why even near-contemporary naval records require comparison.

Yes; reliable supply and clean clothing reduced both logistical strain and the risk of disease disrupting the blockade.

Fleet totals reveal that frigates and smaller cruisers supplied the surveying, scouting, communications, escort, and security work that let ships of the line operate effectively.

Alerte's helpless encounter with HMS Captain becomes a wider lesson that small patrol and auxiliary ships need proportionate self-defense even when they cannot fight major combatants.

A French court accepted the squadron's shortages and overwhelming opposition, while British reuse favoured the small brigs over the damaged frigates.

One cited vessel had a six-pounder, while many World War II trawlers carried single three- or four-inch guns.

A comparison of Russian pre-planned delivery and NATO on-call supply explains why resilient logistics can conserve communications yet still send units the wrong material.

Not necessarily; the key is giving patrol ships proportionate self-defence for prolonged and grey-zone conflicts, not changing their label or making them full frigates.

Use helicopter and UAV capacity plus existing 57 mm, close-range gun, and defensive missile systems to provide self-protection with fleet-wide commonality.

Its physical size and cruiser-like profile were far more striking in person than photographs or the modest displacement difference suggested.

Because those choices match systems already used or being bought by each navy, reducing separate training and logistics burdens.

Naval delivery kept ports supplied in large quantities, preventing the French from fully isolating them and undermining the siege.

Yes, if the missiles were delivered in usable form, because Ukraine needed additional stocks.

No; only part of the class was expected to receive that standard because major refits competed with new battleship construction for the same yards and resources.

They were highly refined, and Hermione's reconstruction showed that several attempted modern improvements worked worse than the historical solutions.

Potentially yes; the non-deck-penetrating mount could support a joint purchase and shared logistics with the British programme.