French frigate Sémillante (1841)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Sémillante.

Fragments of Sémillante, on display at Port-Louis naval museum
History
France
Name	Sémillante
Namesake	"Sparkling"or "frisky"
Builder	Lorient
Laid down	13 March 1827
Launched	6 February 1841
Stricken	15 February 1855
Fate	Wrecked 16 February 1855
General characteristics
Class and type	Surveillante-class frigate
Displacement	2500 tonnes
Length	54 metres (177 ft)
Beam	14.10 metres (46.3 ft)
Draught	3.80 metres (12.5 ft)
Propulsion	sail
Complement	301
Armament	60 guns 32 × 30-pounder long guns 4 × 80-pounder Paixhans guns 24 × 30-pounder carronades
Armour	Timber

The Sémillante was a Surveillante class 60-gun first rank frigate of the French Navy. She sank off the coast of Corsica in 1855 with a loss of 693 people.

Career

Sémillante took part in the Crimean war from 1854 as a transport. In February 1855, under Captain Jugan, she departed Toulon with a crew of 301 and 392 soldiers as reinforcements for the French army

On 15 February 1855, in the Strait of Bonifacio near the Lavezzi Islands, Sémillante was caught in a storm. Lost in a thick fog, a gust of wind drove the ship into rocks on Ile Lavezzi, the 200 ha main island of the archipelago. The ship sank around midnight with all hands.

Monument

For weeks, bodies of the victims washed up on the shore of Île 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 27-foot-high (8.2 m) pyramid of boulders was built as a remembrance of the disaster.

The wreck is cited as a triggering event that raised public awareness of naval disasters and spurred the creation of coastal rescue organizations.

See also

• Cavallo (island)

References

• Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours 1 1671–1870. Roche. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
• Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French warships in the age of sail, 1786-1861. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-184832-204-2.