French frigate Sémillante (1841)

The Semillante was a French Naval warship that sank off the coast of Corsica in 1855.

Description

The three-masted, 60-gun frigate Sémillante (which means “shiny” in French) was one of the last wooden sailing ships to be built in France. It was built in 1841.

Shipwreck

The Sémillante was involved in one of the worst shipwrecks in Mediterranean history. The ship left Toulon, France, commanded by Captain Jugan, with 301 sailors and 392 soldiers on board. [ [http://www.napoleon.org/en/magazine/itineraries/prolong.asp?id=448687&prolong=448701 Napoleon ] ] It was destined first for Constantinople, Turkey, and then to Sebastopol, Crimea, Ukraine, to bring reinforcements for the French army fighting in the Crimean War.

On 15 February 1855, in the Strait of Bonifacio near the Lavezzi Islands, The Sémillante was caught in a hurricane. Lost in a thick fog, a gust of wind drove the ship into rocks on Ile Lavezzi, the 200ha main island of the archipelago. The ship sank around midnight. There were no survivors.

Monument

For weeks, bodies of the victims washed up on the shore of Ile Lavezzi. The remains of 600 of the people on board were eventually recovered and buried in the Achiarino cemetery on the island. Only the captain's grave is marked by name. A twenty-seven foot high pyramid of boulders was built as a remembrance of the disaster.

ee also

*Cavallo (island)
*List of shipwrecks
*French ship Sémillante (list of other ships with the same name)
* [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%25C3%25A9millante&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=5&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsemillante%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGIH_enUS244US244%26sa%3DN] French Wikipedia article

References

ources

* [http://209.85.171.104/translate_c?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://membres.lycos.fr/jlventura/page20.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsemillante%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGIH_enUS244US244%26sa%3DN "The Corsica News" February 07, 1991.]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=WWxOJ_wY4xQC&pg=PA176&lpg=PA176&dq=semillante+1855&source=web&ots=ux3rP5RTaK&sig=KjlBpXNXedCoMzVgvPr1gixLuaU&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result "Corisca", by Oda O'Carroll and David Atkinson]
* [http://www.napoleon.org/en/magazine/itineraries/prolong.asp?id=448687&prolong=448701 Naploeon.Org article]

Further reading

External links