French frigate Surveillante (1778)
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 Battle between the French frigate Surveillante and the British frigate Quebec, 6 october 1779. Auguste-Louis Rossel de Cercy |
|
| Career (France) |    |
|---|---|
| Name: | Surveillante |
| Namesake: | "Monitor" |
| Builder: | Lorient |
| Laid down: | August 1777 |
| Launched: | 26 March 1778 |
| Commissioned: | May 1778 |
| Decommissioned: | January 1797 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Iphigénie class frigate |
| Displacement: | 620 tonnes |
| Length: | 44.2 metres |
| Beam: | 11.2 metres |
| Draught: | 4.9 metres |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Armament: |
32 guns[1]: 28 18-pound long guns |
| Armour: | Timber |
The Surveillante was an Iphigénie class 32-gun frigate of the French Navy.
In May 1779, she was refitted and copered.
The Surveillante took part in the Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War, capturing HMS Spitfire on 19 April 1779.
On 6 October 1779, off Ushant, she fought the 32-gun HMS Quebec, in a furious, three-and-a-half-hour-long combat. Both ships suffered heavy casualties and were completely dismasted. The battle ended when Quebec, firing through her own sails which covered her gunports, took fire and exploded. The Surveillante, her hull leaking, had 30 killed and 85 wounded. Her boat rescued whatever British crew had survived, her sailors of both countries kept the ship afloat. She returned to Brest the next day, where the British are said to have been treated as castaways rather than prisoners of war.
Numerous paintings and drawings of the battle were made, notably by Auguste-Louis Rossel de Cercy (on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris), by George Carter and by Robert Dodd.
 By George Carter |
On 19 February 1781, the Surveillante, along with the 64-gun Éveillé, her sister-ship Gentille and the cutter Guèpe, she captured HMS Romulus in Chesapeake Bay.
In summer 1783, along with HMS Medea, she sailed to America to announce the end of the war.
During the French Revolutionary Wars, she took part to the Expédition d'Irlande. Badly damaged in the tempest and not seaworthy enough to return to France, she was scuttled in Bantry bay.
After the Betelgeuse incident, the wreck of Surveillante was found in 23 metres of water. The wreck is now a memorial, and an 1/6th model of the ship is not on display at Bantry.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ The number of guns was reported to be 36 or even 40. Study of the wreck confirms that the Surveillante had 32.
