Boudeuse

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Boudeuse

Post by shipstamps » Thu Aug 21, 2008 4:43 pm

This stamp depicts Bougainville and his flagship Boudeuse, in which be made a voyage round the world. He had some caustic things to say about the vessel. At her first commissioning at Nantes in 1766 he writes:
"I found her cambered by 7 inches, which resulted from a bank that had grown at the very place where she had been launched. - After her first sailing, where her topmast had been carried away in a gale, he brought her to Brest and had her repaired as follows:
“1. The height of the masts was too much for the voyage we were to achieve. 2. The enormous narrowing of the upper hull gave too acute an angle to the shrouds which held insufficiently the low masts. 3. The above defect was increased in its consequences with the sort of cargo we had in, mostly food. Forty tons of iron-ballast stored on each side of the keelson, and twelve 12-pounder guns stored at the foot of the well-pump (we had only 14 on deck) made a considerable weight, very low under the centre of gravity and almost all on the keelson, which was a danger for the masts at the first rolling."
So the Boudeuse had her masts shortened, her guns entirely replaced (and cannon balls too) and her upper works completely re-caulked (by the way in 13 days). She was able to leave Brest, greatly improved, on December 5, at noon, with 14 guns only, not her original 26, which is an important point to notice at when looking at paintings of the vessel.
Wallis and Fortuna SG224
Attachments
SG224.jpg
Boudeuse.jpg
343.jpg
193.jpg

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