Subject:
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Re: French Navy Ranks
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.pirates
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Date:
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Wed, 27 Mar 2002 20:26:45 GMT
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Viewed:
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1371 times
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> I'm not aware of any seaborne sieges that used French ketches.
> I've never even heard of any plans to use them in the cross-
> Channel invasion.
Quite right. Napoleon never had a grasp of the Navy. I mean, embarking his
Grand Armee into light vessels and trying to get out of port in the space of
a few hours... those 'send the army on porpises' made more sense, for crying
out loud!
> Not likely; Malta first came (IIRC) under French guns when Napoleon's
> entire fleet appeared off the coast. The Knights didn't last long at all.
> At that point, Malta became French; I believe it remained so until it
> passed into British hands.
After the Nile Nelson sent one of his best, Captain Ball in "Alexander (74)*
to remove the French garrison. It took a year or more (as I recall) because
the Maltese were in rought shape. After they succeeded Ball ended up
becoming governor of the island -- the people loved him. He was constantly
demanding aide from the Sicilies, Naples, and so on, but it never
materialized. Heck, I think the Russians even promised help for a while (but
having an insane Tsar, that didn't last either.)
In any case, for a period just around 1800, there was a bit of a fear on
Ball's part of a counter expedition or (before the French surrender) a
reinforcement group. It was quite a little drama for a while, from what I read.
> You've seen my wee little bomb ketch, yes? I've got a big ol' siege
> mortar on board (do a ng search for "siege mortar" and the pic addies
> might be handy). It needed a 16-wide one-midsection hull for full
> traverse, though.
I used to have that bookmarked but I can't find the darn thing now! I do
recall it having something that looked like a 30-inch mortar on it though...
:-)
Kenneth Tam
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: French Navy Ranks
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| (...) I just pulled my copy of 'Conway's The Line of Battle' off the shelf, realizing I should have looked earlier on this subject. Apparently, the French *invented* the mortar ship back in the mid 17-century. The book wasn't too specific on the (...) (22 years ago, 27-Mar-02, to lugnet.pirates)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: French Navy Ranks
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| (...) Later gunboats were also designed for river penetration and close-in assault and, frankly, terror operations against foes without similar capability. The earlier definition seems like the more piratical one, though. :D (...) Political (...) (22 years ago, 27-Mar-02, to lugnet.pirates)
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