French frigate Surveillante (1778)

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.

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.

Notes and references

External links

* [http://chrsouchon.free.fr/surveill.htm Le Combat de la "Surveillante" et du "Québec", le 6 octobre 1779]
* [http://grandquebec.com/histoire/bataille-suerveillante-quebec/ Bataille entre La "Surveillante" et The "Québec"]
* [http://www.science.ulster.ac.uk/cma/quinn%20et%20al%202002%20la%20surveillante.pdf Integrated Geophysical Surveys of The French Frigate "La Surveillante" (1797), Bantry Bay, Co. Cork, Ireland]